Gensokyo One-Shots
by mewmaster93
Summary: A series of one-off tales in the fantasy realm of Gensokyo. A battle between bands, a trip between feuding enemies, and the other side of a Double Dealing incident are just a few of the many stories that shall be presented to you. Who knows which of your favorite Touhou characters shall take part in these tales or what type of light they shall be painted in.
1. The Echoing Night Concerto of the Soul

**Story 1: The Echoing Night Concerto of the Soul**

"_Hello, humans of the outside world. Hmmm, no, that terminology does not seem appropriate in this particular scenario. Would it be better if I recognized you as the beings sitting beyond the glazed monitors in your more realistic universe, or would such information instill a sense of paranoia as to how I could possibly know about your reality? Hmmm, then again, I suppose I did just reveal that information to you now didn't I? Still, perhaps it is not you who is scared, but rather I am the one frightened by your very presence?_

_Oh? I haven't introduced myself to you yet, have I? Actually, perhaps I do not need to. In your world, you already know my name, whether it be through artwork, other tales, official material or even that strange trope site…But I guess if I did not reveal my name, that would be rather rude of me, would it not? Very well. My name is Yukari Yakumo, and this is Mayohiga, my sometimes personal realm that lies close to the Great Hakurei Border. You are welcome to refer to me by any other name you wish, but I am quite aware of the variety of nicknames that have born from your Doujins and forums…_

…_Please do not turn pale before me, I am not so petty as to exact vengeance on those who wish to interpret my character in different ways, in fact, I find some of those depictions to be rather humorous in nature. Hmm? You are wondering just how you managed to arrive at my domain? I must admit, as one who monitors the borders of Gensokyo and has in the past gapped humans to this realm, I do not have nary a clue as to what brought you here. But since you are here and there doesn't appear to be a way out for the time being, how would you like to hear a story or two from sweet old me?_

_Hmmm? You wonder how one who hibernates so often could possibly have any interesting tales to tell? Tee-hee, I know more about what happens in Gensokyo when I'm asleep then you would assume at a first glance. I won't disclose my methods, mind you, but you deserve that little bit of reassurance all the same. Now then, how about I start off with something simple? This tale will detail the first confrontation between Gensokyo's three bands, and the lessons those three groups would learn from each other as their music plays through the night skies…" _

It all started in the dead of night one fateful fall day, when all humans had fallen to rest in their peaceful abodes and all but the nocturnal of Youkai had cuddled up in their natural habitats. With snarls and growls echoing through the forests that either ward off any foolish wanderers or signal the success of their hunt it was hard to discern the signal unique sound amongst the primal Youkai. A melodic chirp enters the air, traveling through to a single temple on the eastern side of Gensokyo.

Despite what was noted earlier, there was one person who could single out this chirp amongst all other noises. Inside this temple, which was named after the long deceased brother of its owner, lied a young yamabiko, a youkai that embodies mountain echoes and thus is able to reflect sounds as she pleases. It is thanks to this interesting ability that she is able to hear the chirp, for with it the yamabiko is able to reflect away all snarls and growls so only the chirp can reach her long, fluffy, dog-like ears.

Those very ears perk up as the yamabiko lies on the left side of her body, dressed in a long pale pink shirt with teal flower-shaped buttons and a white dress below it that is decorated in a black trim. Her teal colored hair, which isn't kept in a particularly fashionable manner, was hung over the side of her face with a couple strands just nearly lying at the corner of her mouth. With the chirp calling to her specifically, the iambic's eyelids perked open far too quickly, signifying that she was only half-asleep.

After waking up, the yamabiko quickly sits herself upright, her bushy dog-like tail lying at the head edge of her sheet as she perks up a light smile on her face. With the way the floor was assembled, the yamabiko would have to rise up slowly to avoid making noise and alerting her peers of what she was trying to do. To help with her departure, the yamabiko took her black shoes at the edge of the sheet and kept them pinched between her left fingers. She then turned around, her bare feet creeping along the floorboards at such a slow rate that they made sounds quiet enough to only be heard by herself.

Once at the sliding wooden door, the yamabiko slowly pushed it aside to the left, turning her head back and forth to make sure nobody was wandering through the hallway late at night. Of course, these cautious glances wouldn't matter at all if the nue residing within the temple had disguised herself as one of the unlit candle wicks on the walls. With a shiver creeping down her spine as she thought of this possibility, the yamabiko exited her tiny room and entered the hallway fully as the light of the outdoor moon shone through brightly at the southern end.

With tip-toes moving across the hallway, the yamabiko made her way to the northern end of the temple where the exit lied, making certain to listen in on the sounds in each room to pass just in case anyone might hear her movements and start reacting to them with an awakening smack of their lips. But all that the yamabiko heard were a couple yawns and a gentle purr from the resident avatar of Bishamonten, Shou Toramaru. It didn't take long for the yamabiko to pass the hallway and be mere seconds away from the front doors, even though the stress born of caution made the trip feel like an eternity.

Once at the door, the yamabiko noticed something interesting plastered on the center of both doors and slowed down a good deal so she could lean forward and take a good look at the object. It was a paper seal infused with Buddhist magic, and the text along the paper suggested that it was meant to set off an alarm if anyone were to swing the doors open without the temple owner's permission. "Lady Hijiri…" The yamabiko whispered the name of the lady in charge of the temple in a tone that shared both disappointment and respect towards them, following up with a light sigh a second later.

As the yamabiko held her right hand in front of her body at a fair distance away from the seal she said to herself "Lets see if I've learned how to do this correctly…"

Chanting an incantation quietly to herself while leaving her mind calm and clear, the yamabiko released a sparkling translucent bubble around her hand that resonates with the seal and causes it to quickly pop off of the door. With a smile on her face, the yamabiko stands upright and walks forward to push the doors open slowly to avoid loud noises coming from them, and makes it to the stone patio of the Myouren Temple.

After closing the doors behind her, the yamabiko quickly sat down and put her shoes on her feet, since the chill that had developed on the ground had caused her body to tremble for a couple seconds. With her ensemble now ready, the yamabiko perked her ears up to listen in for the melodic chirp once more and quickly ran down the staircase in front of her without a care towards the sound she makes now since she was long out of the way of her fellow temple residents. She then made her way towards the nearby forest, where the noise lied deep within.

As she ran through the thick of the woods, the yamabiko thought to herself _"I really wish Lady Hijiri would approve of what I'm doing…It really saddens me to have to break her trust like this every night."_

After a good couple of minutes of running through the forest, the yamabiko makes it to a very open pocket where the grass is strangely orange in contrast to all the green outside this particular area. The trees were very bushy, but made a nice ring above the grass that allowed enough moonlight to shine down and create an alluring atmosphere in the air. At the other side of this area was another female figure who was roughly the same size as the young yamabiko. She wore a punk black dress that extended down to her knees, with a brown leather strap wrapped around the bottom rim of the dress and around the upper parts of her sleeves and neck. The black leather stockings she wore from her knees down to her feet also had similar straps around the kneecaps.

This girl had pink hair that looked rather smooth under the light of the moon and pointed ears like an owl, both of them having a black ring piercing on the lobes. Atop her head was a domed hat with a bat winged accessory attached to the very top of it, and covering her grey eyes halfway was a pair of orange brown rimmed glasses. As this girl stared at the yamabiko she unfurled her light pink bird-like wings, the purple highlights on them shining in the face of the moonlight. She then took a strange red guitar into the grasp of her right hand and strung the cords once with her long, delicate green fingernails. A vibration of pure rhythm fills the atmosphere of the forest, calming the howls and shrieks of all the Youkai almost instantly.

Once the echoes of the guitar have faded, the pink haired girl asks the yamabiko "What took you so long Kyouko?" In a snide yet partially curious tone of voice.

Kyouko Kasodani, in a somewhat shy tone that contrasts with the confident posture the bird-like Youkai showed, nervously chuckles and responds to her with a simple "Y-You know how it is Mystia, I have to sneak out of the temple so Lady Hijiri doesn't catch me."

Mystia Lorelei, after staring at Kyouko for a moment, strums one string on her guitar and says to the yamabiko "I really don't understand why you stay at that temple. You'd feel so much more free if you just cut off all ties to that place. Eventually that stiff of a priest is going to find a way to keep you from seeing me." Mystia's tongue was sharp in regards to her view on Kyouko's lifestyle.

Kyouko said to the night sparrow "Hey now, save for her views on my activities out here at night, Lady Hijiri is a very kind and understanding person. If you went to the Myouren Temple yourself, you'd probably come to like being there."

Kyouko's words ironically fall on deaf ears, as Mystia strums her guitar one more time and turns her head off to the side, scoffing and saying to the yamabiko "Sorry Kyouko, but Buddhism isn't my cup of tea. And as far as that priest goes, if she was really an understanding person, then she'd have no problem with you expressing yourself like this."

Kyouko's ears hang low after hearing Mystia out and her face starts to frown, something the night sparrow notices from the corner of her eyes. Turning towards the yamabiko, Mystia says to her with an apologetic smile as she pokes her glasses into place with her left fingers "I probably did go too far there. We shouldn't start off this night on a really bad note, so can you accept an apology from me so we can finish preparations for our concert tonight?"

Kyouko's ears perk up immediately and she smiles, nodding her head and saying with a happy tone in her voice "Sure thing Mystia!"

Kyouko then turns to the left and notices that beside the night sparrow is a raggedy bag with some clothing inside. As the yamabiko wags her tail excitedly she says to Mystia "Oh good, you brought my clothes along with you!"

Mystia nods, saying to Kyouko just a moment later as she kneels down to pick up the bag with her left hand "I don't mind holding onto these for you, but you should really figure out a safe place at that temple to hide them. I do a lot of road traveling with my food stand between gigs, and there have been a few times when your clothes almost ended up drenched or tossed into a mud puddle."

As Mystia hands the bag off to Kyouko, the yamabiko smiles and says "Maybe I can work something out with Nue to keep the bag hidden, but until then I appreciate you doing this for me."

Mystia tilts her head to the side, keeping her glasses attached to her face in the process as she makes a neutral expression and says to Kyouko "Not a problem. There's actually a funny story I have to tell you about while you get dressed."

Kyouko sets the bag on the ground and pulls out the punk coat that looks a lot like her shirt but with a black coloring to it. As she wraps this over her normal shirt, Mystia strums her guitar once more, making sure the sound is well-adjusted for their gig tonight as she proceeds to tell her tale to her friend "I accidentally put on your dress a few days ago when I was trying to get in the mood for song writing. I didn't even realize what I had done until after I was done practicing."

As Kyouko takes off her shoes and starts to put on some black leather stockings, she looks up at Mystia with a grin on her face and says "You didn't notice the lack of holes in the back for your wings?"

Mystia blushes at the yamabiko's comment in an embarrassed manner and proceeds to say to her "W-Well to be fair, I was really caught up in the mood…And your clothing has the same measurements as mine so…"

"Oh Mystia, you are such a goofball at times." Kyouko says with her eyelids shut as she wraps a leather collar around her neck, tightening it just enough that she'll be able to breath while still feeling the collar against her skin. After making this little comment, Mystia's blush darkens and she promptly spouts out "N-No I'm not, it was an easily made mistake, that's all!"

Kyouko snaps on her rectangular lens shaped sunglasses and cracks a smile as she stands upright with her ensemble complete. With her left arm leaning against her hip, Kyouko says to her friend "I'm just messing with you now Mystia. Have you gotten the lyrics for tonight's song memorized?"

Mystia, removing the flustered expression from her face thanks to her friend's reassurance, nods her head and says to Kyouko "Yep. All that practice was worth it for this song. I have called it 'In a Night When Her Sorrow Resounds Around'. Since we didn't get to meet up too much before our gig tonight, would you be ok with using your powers to reflect my voice across the forest in a bombastic manner while I whisper the lyrics of my song?"

Kyouko nods her head and says to Mystia with a pump of her right fist beside her body "You bet I am!" Her enthusiasm was so natural that it was hard to believe that she could ever be depressed.

"You know Kyouko, you should try writing a song some time. It would be like those sutras you recite, but you would relieve a lot more of your stress." Mystia points out as she makes one final preparation with her guitar so the rhythm will match the lyrics of her song.

Kyouko now blushes in a timid manner, her arms curling up in front of her body as she says to her friend "I-I wouldn't want people judging my songs…I don't think I'd be a very good song writer, especially not compared to some of the stuff you write, Mystia."

Mystia responds with a blunt "Well isn't that the truth?" which somewhat surprises Kyouko before the night sparrow continues on by saying "But I understand what you are getting at. We will work on your confidence another time Kyouko, but for now we don't want to waste this moonlight. You know what to do."

With the night sparrow giving Kyouko a half-grin and a glance from the side of her eyes, the yamabiko perks up with a happy smile on her face and raises her left hand beside her mouth, nodding just a moment before she widens her mouth and proclaims with intense excitement **"WHO IS READY TO ROCK WITH CHOUJUU GIGAKU?!"**

Kyouko's voice echoes throughout the forest thanks to her powers, but only goes so far as to alert the Youkai within instead of spreading to locations beyond. With the Youkai having gone silent before thanks to the sound of Mystia's guitar, the air is suddenly filled with excited howls and cries that had to be kept within the confines of the forest via the yamabiko's ability. The rumbling noise that joins the tremors in the ground comes from all around, and as both Kyouko and Mystia turn their heads back and forth they watch as Youkai after Youkai of various shapes and sizes emerge from the trees and bushes and gather around in a circle around the two band members.

There was a rather hefty crowd which consisted of rabbits, fairies, a couple tengu, a few wild beasts, and a single nekomata. Some of the members of this crowd tumbled over each other to try and get a good spot to stand, causing a little bit of chaos for the first part of this night concert. Kyouko and Mystia didn't worry too much about this chaos, since this has happened every time since they brought their band together. While they waited for this to sort out, the night sparrow glanced off to the right and looked towards the air, lured in by a familiar pale yellow glow.

Floating in mid-air above the eastern part of the crowd is a blue-eyed, teal hair Youkai with bug-like antenna atop their head. The bug Youkai wears a white shirt with stylized sleeves and a black cape with red trimming that is shaped to resemble insect wings. This ensemble is completed with a pair of baggy blue knee-length shorts. With a quick thumbs up of acknowledgement from this bug Youkai named Wriggle Nightbug, Mystia smiles confidently and proceeds to turn back to face Kyouko as the crowd's chaotic cries begin to die down.

With an enthusiastic pump of her left fist as she swings her body in that direction and cups her right hand around the side of her mouth, Kyouko readies her powers to receive Mystia's lyrics as the night sparrow prepares her guitar to go along with the song itself. After five more seconds of silence, the first strums go on through the forest as Mystia sings just loud enough for Kyouko to reflect the noise inconspicuously amongst the ears of the crowd in a bombastic manner. The very moment that the song starts echoing across the forest the crowd erupts into merry cheers and overjoyed roars that didn't drown out the song in the slightest.

Kyouko and Mystia don't stand still as they work in unison to play the night sparrow's song. They move their bodies around, with Mystia strumming the guitar violently at certain points as she raises the end of the instrument into the air and Kyouko thrusts the upper part of her body forward at the crescendo of a chorus. Choujuu Gigaku was satisfying its target audience to the extreme, and it was clear as day that the two of them were enjoying themselves.

But as the song reached a midway point, a loud voice bursts through the commotion to disrupt everyone's fun "CHOUJUU GIGAKU ARE HACKS!"

Suddenly, everyone goes silent, including both Mystia and Kyouko, who raise their bodies upright and look towards the direction of the voices after the night sparrow lowers her guitar. Floating in midair are three figures, each of them having a different instrument floating besides their bodies with white wisps surrounding them. The one who made the declaration was the middle one wearing red clothing, which included a band uniform with pink and brown trim and a hat with a green shooting star decoration on top. A winged keyboard with the initials "L.P." written on the side floats beside her body as she glared down at the members of Choujuu Gigaku with her brown eyes as her short light brown hair blows thanks to the cold night breeze that just came through the forest.

On the left side of this figure was a slightly taller figure wearing a black band uniform with a white and red trim, her hat having a red crescent moon decoration as a violin floats nearby. This girl looks down at the band with her neutral golden eyes as her short blond hair sways in the breeze, and she looked like she didn't have anything to say at the moment. The third figure off to the right of the first wore a pink band uniform with blue and black trim, her hat having a blue sun decoration at the peak as a trumpet floats beside her body. This girl had a bit of a smile on her face, but in general looked rather aloof as she quickly glanced away from Choujuu Gigaku with her blue eyes and looked towards the moon as her wavy light-blue hair blows in the breeze.

As the crowd goes silent, the three figures float towards Choujuu Gigaku, descending closer to them as they tilt their heads curiously. However, Mystia looks at the girl in the center for a moment and recognizes her instantly, saying to her with her left pointer finger aimed at the air "Hey! You're that one musician from the Flower Incident years ago!"

The middle girl slyly smirks at Mystia, saying to her in a smart-aleck tone of voice "I'm glad you remember me, Fraudia Fraudlei!"

Ignoring the childish insult that was tossed her friend's way, Kyouko tilts her head in the opposite direction and says "Ummm…Who are you guys?"

The middle girl, directing her smile towards the yamabiko as she commands the keyboard to the front of her body, says in response to her question as the other two figures prepare their instruments in front of their bodies "We are the Prismriver Sisters! The one and only Phantom Ensemble in all of Gensokyo! I am Lyrica!" Lyrica swings her hand along the keys of her instrument to create a medley of notes.

"I am Merlin!" The trumpeter says cheerfully as she blows a quick note into her instrument.

"…And I am Lunasa." The violinist says quietly as she glances off to the side while gliding her bow across the strings of her instrument to create a peaceful sounding tune.

"Oh!" Kyouko perks her ears up, the name Prismriver resonating with her memories as she points at them with an upside-down pointer finger and says to the three phantoms "I've heard about you guys. You sometimes play at parties and other events, right?"

Lyrica nods her head and says to the yamabiko with a sly smile "Yeah, you got that right."

"…So umm…Why did you come and interrupt our gig?" Kyouko says as she scratches the side of her head with her left hand.

Lyrica responds to Kyouko's inquiry with a blunt "Like I said, we are calling out Choujuu Gigaku for being frauds of the highest degree! You know nothing about music, and bring shame to the art with your actions!"

As Lyrica brandishes a finger at the two members of Choujuu Gigaku, the crowd that has gathered in this pocket of the forest lets out a drawn out "Ooooooo" of intrigue at what the youngest of the Prismriver Sisters was suggesting.

"And what gives you the right to say that to us?!" Kyouko blurts out without much thought, which causes Mystia's eyes to widen at the naivety of her friend as she slaps her left palm against the front of her face and whispers out in a mumbled groan "You really just said that to them…"

Kyouko glances back at the night sparrow and then looks up at the Prismriver Sisters. Lyrica's right eyelid is twitching in agony as she stutters, exclaiming to the yamabiko just moments later "How dare you assume that we masters of such a fine art as music know nothing of what we say! You leave us with no choice frauds!"

Lyrica, waving to her sisters with both hands, proceeds to hold her right hand out and with a glint of magical light she summons forth a glowing card that she clasps between two fingers. Her sisters do the same as Lyrica declares "We will settle this with a spell card duel!"

Instinctively, Kyouko and Mystia pull out one of their own spell cards, though the yamabiko is a bit more reluctant to get into a Danmaku battle with the Prismriver Sisters despite the enticing roar of the crowd to "Fight! Fight! Fight!" The primal instincts to the Youkai were taking hold as the two bands stared each other down ready to engage in a duel.

But before everything got too out of control, the clap of two sticks getting beaten together echoed into the forest three times, some sound waves vibrating across the air to create a calming sensation to quells the roars of the Youkai and actually makes the two bands take pause away from their intense stare down. They look off to the left where the sound is coming from and are surprised by the sudden presence by a mysterious group of people.

The crowd parts on both sides as the person holding two drum sticks starts to step forward, their hands held in the air as they have their eyelids closed and walk in a rather serene manner. It was a young lady of rather average height and build who wore white overcoat with long sleeves and a purple tie over a black shirt with red cross-hatching that is tucked gently into a short white skirt. The person wears surprisingly strange looking black-purple shoes with red lacing and drum mallets attached to the heels. Floating behind this person is a human-sized red magical drum decorated with white flower patterns, while hovering around this person like a set of meteors circling a planetoid are the crimson floor toms of the drum. With her short, wavy red hair being brushed aside by a single breeze this laid-back lady opens her eyelids and glances forward with her red eyes and smiles as she lowers her drumsticks, twirling them around masterfully twice over before letting them float beside her body as she sticks her right hand into the pocket of her overcoat.

Standing behind this mysterious yet suave lady were two other girls who appeared to be younger than the drummer. The one off to the left of the drummer wears a brown and black dress with long white sleeves and a pink silk weave extension at the bottom. She has neither shoes nor pants on her body, but has what appears be an ivory flower accessory attached to the right side of her short lilac hair. She has two long ponytails attached to her back of her hair, and in her hands she gently strums a fancy wooden biwa whose strings have taken on the form of magical based red strands, with the very notes she calmly plays appearing with a yellow-orange hue as they ascend towards the very top of the strings.

The girl off to the right of the drummer wears a white long-sleeve shirt with an ivory center and similar colored cuffs, both of them having zig-zag lines of black that cover the entire area. She wears a black skirt that extends to just above her kneecaps, and just like the other girl she is barefoot. Floating in front of her skirts is a set of seven red strings that are similar in design to the ones attached to the other girl's biwa. These strings are gently tugged at with this girl's fingers, and the notes that emerge have a light-brown hue to them. Wrapped around the girl's roundly cut brown hair is a dark-pink band with the same zig-zag pattern that her sleeves have.

Once all three mysterious girls have stopped in place, the Prismriver Sisters and Choujuu Gigaku can only tilt their heads in confusion at them, and in unison they ask "Who are you guys?"

The red-haired drummer, after letting out a well-tuned hum, glances at the two bands from left to right, and proceeds to graciously bow at them while folding her left arm in front of her chest and saying in a pleasantly laid-back tone "My name is Raiko Horikawa, the Relaxed Drummer of the Rhythmic Night. And these two graceful ladies behind me are my associates/friends, the Biwa Player of a Serene Paradise Benben Tsukumo and the Koto User With a Rambunctious Demeanor Yatsuhashi Tsukumo."

Both members of Choujuu Gigaku and the Prismriver Sisters tilt their heads in bewilderment and once again say in unison after taking a few seconds of pause "…Who are you guys?"

Raiko is surprised that the two Youkai and three poltergeists didn't recognize either her or her friends by name. After standing upright the drummer lays her left pointer finger against the side of her face and does a steady tap three times over before she draws her hand in front of her body and snaps her fingers, saying to the two bands in a gracious tone of voice "Pray tell, have your ears perhaps caught word of an incident that occurred but a mere month ago?"

Kyouko was the first to respond as she exclaims excitedly towards Raiko and her comrades "Oh yeah! The incident with that inchling who used a mallet and caused an uprising of weaker Youkai! I think Mystia and I were two of the Youkai affected by the mallet, so we don't really remember much about what happened. Did you three partake in that incident?"

Raiko draws her right arm outside of her sleeve and extends it beside her body along with her left arm, graciously stating in response to the yamabiko's inquiry "We didn't so much as partake in the incident rather that we were BORN from the incident."

"What do you mean you were 'born from the incident'?" Mystia asks in a snide tone of voice.

"It may not be obvious from a first glance, and I wouldn't blame you for not knowing it, but we are-" As Raiko is about to explain herself to Mystia Kyouko suddenly interrupts and says "Oh! You three are tsukumogami!"

Raiko blinks twice in surprise at the yamabiko, saying with a smile on her laid-back expression "I see you are quite knowledgeable about our kind."

"We have a tsukumogami at our temple. She was born from an umbrella!" Kyouko says merrily.

Raiko taps the side of her face once more, this time in intrigue as she murmurs loudly enough for the others to hear "Hmm, yet another tsukumogami lives in Gensokyo. That makes two besides the three of us…I will have to meet this umbrella tsukumogami some other time."

Lyrica, who was perfectly content with letting Raiko say her peace for the time being, realized how off-track everything was getting and she quickly turned towards Choujuu Gigaku and said to them "Forget this drummer and her ridiculous getup! We have a spell card duel to get underway!"

"Why?" Lyrica's declaration of battle was countered by the calmly asked inquiry of Raiko, who folded her right hand into his overcoat once more and glanced up at the Prismrivers from the corner of her eyes.

Lyrica glances down at the drummer and says "What do you mean 'why'?"

"Why do you need to engage Choujuu Gigaku in a spell card duel? What purpose does this serve?" Raiko asks two piercing questions one after the other in a very calm tone of voice, which only serves to infuriate the easily angered Lyrica and lessen her opinion of the drummer.

"These two hacks have sullied the good name of music with their ear grating songs!" Lyrica angrily proclaims.

"And how exactly is a spell card duel going to solve this problem?" Raiko asks in a delightfully pleasant tone of voice.

Lyrica's right eyebrow starts twitching as she looks at Raiko in disbelief, and with a light stutter she says "D-Do you not know where you are? This is Gensokyo, everyone is resolved with a spell card duel!"

"But does it necessarily HAVE to be resolved with danmaku? Its not a concrete law, you are allowed to use other means to resolve your problems. In this, it probably would be for the best if you didn't resort to danmaku, since that won't really solve the present issues." Raiko says.

Lyrica flat out stares at Raiko with both eyes twitching in disbelief, but before she says anything she slap her left hand against her face and rubs it downward against her skin before groaning and saying "Ok…Lets go along with your suggestion…If we shouldn't use danmaku to solve this problem, then what shall we do?"

Raiko snaps her left fingers beside her body a few times, saying between each beat "Words are the way to go. But before we use them, there is something I want to see for myself…As such, I propose a brief battle of the bands between our three groups!"

"A battle of musical talent?" Lyrica's angered gaze is switched to one of intrigue, followed by her face gaining a particularly sly smile as she turns towards her sisters in a determined fashion and says to them "Does that sound good to you, sisters?"

Merlin and Lunasa nod their heads, with Merlin showing more enthusiasm while Lunasa is rather indifferent to the whole affair that she ended up being dragged into. Lyrica then takes her keyboard in front of her body while she looks back at Raiko, giving a single coy glance at Choujuu Gigaku in the interim of these two actions before she proclaims to the drummer as her two sisters prepare their instruments "We accept these terms!"

Raiko glances over at Choujuu Gigaku and waits for them to make a reply. Kyouko had a somewhat nervous look in her eye, but Mystia brashly exclaims "We accept the terms as well!"

The night sparrow then nudges Kyouko in the back with her left elbow, causing the yamabiko to look at Raiko and nod her head in agreement of what her friend said. The drummer tsukumogami notices Kyouko's earlier hesitation and raises an eyebrow, but does so as she grabs her sticks out of the air and twirls them around spectacularly. As this action is performed the drum behind her body flies overhead and lands in front of her, and Raiko leaps atop the drum and bangs the front of it gently with the mallet on the back of her right heel as she crosses her legs. Benben and Yatsuhashi fly up into the air beside Raiko and ready their fingers along the strings of their instruments.

Nodding her head at both Tsukumo sisters, Raiko then swings her drumsticks around one more time before gently beating them atop the floor toms that surround her body while simultaneously using the mallets on her heels to beat away at the drum below her. After a few seconds of steady, wonderful sounding beats as the crowd of Youkais break into excited cheering, Benben proceeds to strum along the length of her biwa while Yatsuhashi plugs away at her koto with the ends of her fingers.

The music that is created from the three tsukumogamis is not only very relaxing, but it was something the likes of which the other two bands had never heard before in their lives. It was actually rather intimidating to see Raiko and her two companions play that music so confidently despite how little time they likely had to practice this song. What's worse is that the crowd of Youkai appeared to be enjoying this song far more than anything Choujuu Gigaku had ever produced for them, as the crowd swayed their heads back and forth and hummed to the beat of Raiko's drums.

The three tsukumogamis played for a good five minutes before they stopped, their notes filling the moonlit sky above as their hair shone brightly. As Raiko drew away her drumsticks Benben and Yatsuhashi pulled away their fingers, allowing the drummer to leap off of her instrument and land on the ground in front of the other two bands, and as the music dies down completely she politely asks "Who wants to go next?"

The Prismriver Sisters, despite being intimidated by Raiko's performance, bravely step up in the face of Choujuu Gigaku's reluctance with a proud "We will!"

Raiko shrugs her shoulders and says to the eager Prism rivers "Go right ahead. Show me what type of music you are capable of performing."

With Lyrica at the keyboard, Merlin on the trumpet and Lunasa on the violin, the three sisters began to work their instruments at the same time, playing a melody that has been carried with them for their entire lives, the one song they would always know how to play no matter how far along the ebb and flow of time goes. It started off rather slow and somber, as though the song was meant to recall an old tragedy, but then a more uplifting set of notes start to get played. Raiko twitches in surprise, a chill being sent through a spine at the magnificent transition between moods.

Then the strength of the Prismriver's perseverance past that tragedy is shown as the song is played with a more powerful set of notes that consists of the main chorus, which lasts a good two minutes before the crescendo slowly reverts back to a melancholy tune. Raiko closes her eyelids and hums along with these final notes, smiling all the while as a single teardrop trickles out of her right eye. Then the Prismriver's song comes to an end, and with the group of Youkai going dead silent it was painfully obvious that they shared a tiny bit of empathy with the song.

Raiko extends her hands in front of her body and claps, congratulating the three sisters on the song with a very respectful "Bravo, bravo! That was a splendid song!"

Lyrica, who has quickly had her opinion on the drummer flipped around, says to her "Thank you very much…" before turning towards the two members of Choujuu Gigaku and saying with a snide smile "You're next."

Mystia confidently raises the end of her guitar towards the air and looks towards Kyouko, saying to her "Come on Kyouko, lets show these old-timer poltergeists what we are made of!"

Lyrica, Merlin and surprisingly Lunasa take offense to Mystia's remark about their ages and glare at her in anger, all the while the night sparrow notices from the back that Kyouko is trembling uncontrollably, something that causes concern to cross her face as she tilts her head and asks "Kyouko, are you alright?"

The yamabiko had her fists clenched tightly as she held her head forward and her eyes widened nervously. With her teeth grit together and her body refusing to move outside of this position, it looked like Kyouko was on the verge of a panic attack. Raiko takes note of this and thinks to herself _"Perhaps I let this go too far beyond my intentions…"_

Lyrica boasts without a care towards Kyouko's condition, saying in a snide tone of voice as Mystia walks beside her friend "Well, I guess Choujuu Gigaku can't participate in this battle of the bands. So who is the winner?"

The inquiry was directed at Raiko, who turns towards Lyrica and with eyelids shut she calmly says to her while spinning both of her drumsticks around "I can sense all too well the meaning behind your song. That song is very special to the three of you, it defines who you are and what your purpose in life shall always be…But you don't play that song because you have no other options, you do it to preserve the memory of one you lost so very long ago. To you three, you believe music should be played for a meaningful reason, and thus you came into conflict with Choujuu Gigaku because you believe that they are just making noise. You feel disrespected by their music, and that caused you to toss away all reasoning before you even heard just why they play their music."

Raiko's long spoken analysis took the three Prismrivers entirely off-guard, but as they were struck by disbelief and their mouths fell agape the drummer continued on by saying "Your reasons for playing music are noble, and reflect the kindness that you shared in your souls for that departed person…But perhaps your kindness could also be shown to Choujuu Gigaku by letting them play their music in peace. I won't force this upon you, so its up to you to decide whether to take my advice into consideration or not. Before you decide though, I need to take care of something."

With Raiko's calmly spoken speech leaving the Prismriver Sisters speechless, the drummer flips her drumsticks around one more time and lets go of them to let them float beside her body as she turns and looks Kyouko, who was still trembling with Mystia standing behind her with her guitar lowered and her right hand resting atop the back of the yamabiko. Raiko kneels down and looks up at Kyouko's face while rubbing her chin with her right hand and saying quietly "Ah…I see what my actions have done…"

"Huh?" Mystia says in bewilderment.

"Is Kyouko a timid person?" Raiko asks as she glances up at the night sparrow.

"She kind of is, why?" Mystia reluctantly admits.

Raiko nods her head twice and looks back at Kyouko, giving her a laid-back smile as she says "An inferiority complex usually comes with a timid person…And it is my fault that she has been left in this state. I'm sorry if you feel as though my music was intimidating, Kyouko…But that was never my intention. I have the ability to manipulate rhythms, but in the time that I've been alive in this new body I have had a difficult time getting it under control. Our music ends up sounding better than it actually is to everyone who hears it besides us. Truth be told, we aren't really that good."

Kyouko's trembling starts to decline somewhat, and she pokes her head up slightly to take a better look at Raiko. The drummer cracks a gorgeous smile and says to the yamabiko "Deep down, I'm actually somewhat jealous of what you two Youkai have managed to accomplish. I heard your music from afar, and that was what drew us to come here…It fascinated me to see you two express your freedom through the rhythm your souls sung out into the night."

Kyouko looks straight at Raiko and says to her in an embarrassed stutter "B-But I wasn't actually singing that song…"

Raiko says in a reassuring voice towards the yamabiko "True as that may be, you still utilized your ability to allow the emotions ingrained in the song to be heard by all who have gathered here. Your ability is part of your soul, it defines your individuality, and with the help of your friend you can create beautiful melodies for all to hear."

Raiko then stands up quickly and looks towards the sky, pointing her right drumstick towards the glowing moon as she calmly says "So point your head towards the sky, and believe in yourself to accomplish great things. Someday, with a great deal of confidence behind you, your music will be able to reach the very moon itself."

Raiko looks down at Kyouko, whose head is tilted towards the sky alongside Mystia, and says in a hopeful tone of voice "And I personally look forward to the day when that happens."

Raiko twirls her drumstick around twice and lets go of it so it can float beside her body once more. After pocketing her hands she turns around and starts to walk off, much to Choujuu Gigaku's surprise. Kyouko reaches out towards the tsukumogami and says to her "Hey wait!"

Raiko glances over her right shoulder and doesn't say a word, and the yamabiko confidently says to her "Thank you for your help! Will we ever see you again?"

Raiko grins brightly, and after looking forward she says as she walks on ahead "For those of us whose desire for freedom supersedes all other, the odds of repeated meetings are greater than none. We shall meet again…"

Raiko leaps atop her drum and looks towards Benben and Yatsuhashi, who were quietly playing their instruments while their mentor did their thing. With a nod of the drummer's head, the three tsukumogami take off towards the night sky. As they fly away from the other two bands, Benben looks at Raiko and says in a serene voice towards her "Raiko…You made up that detail about your rhythm powers, didn't you?"

Raiko creates a sly grin and glances at Benben, saying to her in an honest tone of voice "Perhaps I did fib a little. But I did sense the potential for greatness within Choujuu Gigaku and felt incredibly guilty for accidentally affecting the young Kyouko, so I just whipped up a quick lie to snap her out of her timidness so she can hear the truly honest words I had to say to her and her friends. Still though, what she said about there being a tsukumogami at her temple has intrigued me…Perhaps unlike the menreiki, we will be successful in recruiting this umbrella for our cause…" As the thoughts of the carefree Raiko drift within her head, the three tsukumogami continue to fly through the eternal night, with the Tsukumo sisters practicing their music all the way.

Back in the circle pocket in the forest, most of the Youkai have started to depart, seeing as they got their fill of music for the night. The only ones who remain after a fair deal of time are the Prismriver Sisters and the two members of Choujuu Gigaku. Mystia is in the midst of talking to Kyouko about how cool Raiko looked, both figures unaware of the fact that Lyrica was approaching them from behind.

Lyrica glanced at the ground nervously as her sisters float down behind her, and with a nervous cough to grab Choujuu Gigaku's attention she says to them "U-Ummm…We're sorry for the trouble we caused tonight."

Lunasa, for the first time tonight, says with a raise of her eyebrows "WE?"

Lyrica ignores the words of her sister and tries to look straight at Kyouko and Mystia as they turn around to look at them. "Hey, it was just a major misunderstanding. We don't have any reason to stay mad at you both." Mystia says, showing easy forgiveness towards the Lyrica.

Kyouko cheerfully exclaims towards the Prismriver Sisters as she peers through her sunglasses at them "You guys are great musicians though! Why don't you play more often around Gensokyo? You'd be a major hit!"

Lyrica looks at Kyouko and says to her while remaining a little nervous "We prefer to just perform at parties and festivals."

"Are you sure you don't want to join us for one of our gigs another time? We could play one after the other." Kyouko suggests.

Lyrica flinches at what Kyouko says, and after a momentary pause she looks at both of her sisters and asks them "I don't know guys, does that sound like a good idea to you?"

Lunasa replies with a simple "I'll do whatever you want to do" while Merlin cheerfully exclaims "It could be a learning experience for all three of us!"

With the opinions of her sisters known, Lyrica turns towards Choujuu Gigaku and says them with a confident grin on her face "Alright, you have yourself a deal!"

Mystia, Kyouko and the Prismriver Sisters all smile at this peaceful resolution, their heads turning to face each other until the yamabiko can't contain her excitement and happily exclaims with the help of her echoing voice "OH YOU GUYS!"

With birds flying out of the trees thanks to the sudden burst of volume from the little yamabiko, Kyouko swiftly wraps her left arm around Mystia's neck and drags her forward so she reach the Prismriver Sisters and force all of them into a group hug with the assistance of her right arm. Though this resolution was very cheesy as the Prismrivers were bundled together and pressed against Kyouko's body alongside Mystia, all of them eventually cracked genuine smiles and burst into happy laughter that carried through the night as a new bond had developed between them all…

"_The end…_

…_Hmm? Are you still awake over there? You are? Color me surprised, I would have expected the human's ability to tolerate such a lengthy tell to be subpar, but you endured and made it to the very end. Tee-hee…That is definitely a good sign of things to come not just for you, but for the people whose stories I have yet to tell. But for now, I shall leave you with the mystery of just who I will speak about next. I have a plethora of tales to tell, all ranging from different time periods in multiple histories of Gensokyo, but for now I am afraid I must rest up. Until we meet again, humans who exist beyond the electronic veil…"_

**Story 1 - Finish**

* * *

**Author's Note:**

After about a month since the end of Scarlet Masquerade I have written another Touhou story. Let me say that it feels good to be back on this particular subject. However, while it was nice writing this story, my priorities are currently focused on my main fic Clash of the Elements. I will mostly be uploading these one-shots in my spare time or when an idea pops to mind.

As for which story shall be next? Well you heard Yukari, you'll just have to wait and see~


	2. Goddamn it, Seiga!

**Story 2: Goddamn it, Seiga**

"_Hmmm? Oh, you have returned yet again. Did my previous tale fill you with enough intrigue to grasp your attention and bring you back for another, or did some other force call you to this place? Tee-hee, of course, it is entirely possible that I'm not speaking to the same people that I did before. News of my first tale could have traveled far and wide across the medium you call the internet, and I may be speaking to different people. If so, I am quite sorry, but I must ask that you return to the first tale and at the very least read my introduction before returning here. I do not like to waste time repeating myself, after all._

_So, what is the story I have planned for you today? Well before I reveal that to you, let me mention something I happened to pluck from the outside world just recently…No, not the outside world connected to Gensokyo, but rather the outside world where myself and others are considered to be fictional. Hmmm, you've turned pale all of a sudden? Do not worry, I have no intention of crossing the border of static and electricity to enter your world…That would certainly not be beneficial for either one of us. _

_Anyways, as I was saying, I happened to pluck a few of those stories called 'Doujins' and transferred them to paper format for easy reading…One particular tale that humored me went by the name of 'Solar Eclipse', where that newcomer hermit and her jiangshi attempted to breech the Hakurei Border for the Crown Prince, and in the process ended up converting the shrine maiden of paradise into a jiangshi to accomplish that goal. Tee-hee, there were definitely many humorous moments in that tale, like the very implication that I would ever trust Ran with anything as important as the defense of the Hakurei Border or that the Hakurei maiden could be turned temporarily into a jiangshi._

_But the story nonetheless got me thinking as I continued to prowl through the Doujins. I was very intrigued by how many different ways these writers interpreted the denizens of Gensokyo, especially with how many times I saw myself getting paired off with the Hakurei maiden. While the very idea of someone like me who has evolved beyond the need for love showing attraction towards anyone is silly, it was still an intriguing sight to behold. I feel as though I am going off-track from my original purpose though, so let us get back on the right road._

_The point I wish to bring to your attention today is that I hold no disdain for those of you who wish to show us citizens of Gensokyo in differing lights. From what I've noticed, that seems to be part of the appeal towards our world. However, one does not have to just resort to grim dark 'end of the world' stories or tales of romance in order to depict us all in a new light. What those of you call 'slice of life' just as easily suffices._

_And that is what the subject of my story shall be today. In keeping up with what I mentioned before, I shall tell you a simple tale about a rather unordinary day for the Hakurei shrine maiden, and the hidden side of a particular hermit I mentioned before. Now then, shall we begin?"_

It all began near the end of the summer cycle. The leaves were beginning to fall from their elongated branches as their colors faded from a delicate green to a crisp dark red. The festive gods began to emerge and take advantage of the extra faith they'd be able to obtain from the shift into autumn. While many a Youkai and human enjoyed the shifting of seasons, there was one particular individual who did not. At the edge of Gensokyo, along the great border keeping the land of fantasy sealed off from the outside world lied a single run-down shrine atop a long, moss covered stone staircase.

Surrounded by trees, this Shinto shrine attracted the presence of fallen leaves rather easily as the seasons shifted from warmth to the crisp fall cold. The one person who mostly took residence inside of this shrine hated the coming of autumn with as much passion as she could muster. Her name was Reimu Hakurei, who is usually referred to by the title of "Shrine Maiden of Paradise" to the Youkai that fear her and "that strange girl" by the humans who loathe her. As a shrine maiden of an undefined age, it has always been Reimu's job to keep her shrine tidy and deal with the many monstrous Youkai in Gensokyo. Unfortunately, fate could not have chosen a worse personality to give to someone of such importance.

If asked to describe Reimu in a few words, most people would say that "lazy", "aloof" and "lacking in effort". If it were not for her presence outside the shrine, you would never even assume that someone was taking care of it. The shrine barely had any luster to it, having been captured by the decay of time without someone who would actively take care of it inhabiting it. Reimu Hakurei didn't really care to keep up her shrine, and she only made a couple adjustments every now and then simply out of what little care she has towards her duty as a shrine maiden.

So what does all this have to do with her dislike towards the falling leaves? Because for someone as sloth-ish as Reimu, the leaves imposing themselves onto the stone walkway in front of her shrine forced her to actually work. It wasn't because she wanted to clear the walkway or nothing, but rather because if she didn't she knew all too well that it would more trouble for her or company to wade through the leaves. In other words, Reimu was merely taking the lesser of two evils. Most of the time, it can only be assumed that she only pretends to sweep the walkway to portray an image of cleanliness to those rumor-loving humans down in the village.

With the first layer of leaves having fallen upon the ground, it was time for cleaning to commence. Wearing her usual red-and-white miko attire with detached sleeves and skirt included, Reimu brushes back her long and loose brown hair and groans as she picks up her small width broom and heads outside of the shrine. The clouds above were scattered and grey, doing little to help the shrine maiden's mood as he moves towards the leaves. With a scoffed expression and her eyelids shut roughly, Reimu starts at the steps of her shrine and begins sweeping back and forth quickly.

As expected, Reimu doesn't try to get every single leaf removed from the walkway, but instead goes for the lazy approach of just brushing left and right without a care to remove most of them out of the way. With this method of sweeping, it doesn't take long for the shrine maiden to reach the halfway point, but even this amount of effort left Reimu feeling annoyed as he took a moment to fold her arms atop the stick of her broom and look on with a dull expression as she moaned "I really wish these leaves would just disappear forever…"

Looking towards the sky, the shrine maiden departed into her own mind as she thought _"Its been almost six months since the last incident…Come on Gensokyo, give me some random Youkai or another immortal human to deal with. It would be REALLY great if you have me someone related to the leaves, maybe I could push them into preventing them from falling around my shrine…"_

Sighing at the futility of her imagination ever coming true, Reimu buries her head into her arms and says in a mutter "Forget it, I have better odds of someone actually coming to my shrine and giving a donation…"

Reimu then stopped loafing around and went back to work, albeit reluctantly, and continued sweeping for a good ten minutes until the walkway looked somewhat more presentable. The shrine maiden then swung the broom over her right shoulder like she was wielding her gohei and said in a proud enough tone of voice "Well, whatever…That's good enough for one day."

As the shrine maiden turned around and began to walk back towards the shrine, she noticed something odd at the top of her steps that made her squint her eye to get a clearer look at what it was. Draped in a strange black cloth stood a hunched figure in front of her donation box with one pale white arm putting a few gold yen pieces inside. But Reimu didn't realize the action occurring and immediately assumed that the figure was out to steal her box.

Dropping the broom without any hesitation, Reimu sprung into action with three paper seals being drawn between her right fingers as she dashes forward and exclaims "Hey! Get your hands off of that!"

As the shrine maiden rushed towards the figure, the person withdrew their hands and started to turn around. Reimu's right eyebrow rises as she looks towards the front of this cloaked figure and sees that they are completely shrouded in shadow. It wasn't that the way the cloaked was positioned was keeping the person underneath from being seen, but rather that someone had cast a spell on the cloak to keep their identity hidden. Reimu slowly began to lower her arm as she stopped a good five feet away from the cloaked figure, and the head of the person creaked up to look at the shrine maiden.

"_A fair donation, for such a fair maiden…May fortune smile upon you, Reimu Hakurei." _The person spoke in a distorted voice that Reimu didn't recognize, and as the shrine maiden paused in place with her eyes focused strictly on the cloaked figure they began to waddle around her body and left the area of the Hakurei shrine in a matter of seconds.

Reimu raises her eyebrow out of suspicion towards the figure, and thinks to herself _"Was that a human or a Youkai?" _

The shrine maiden decides that if she goes and checks the donation box for signs of activity, she might learn a little more about her mysterious visitor. But when Reimu steps onto her shrine and leans her head forward, her eyes sparkle with a golden sheen as she is captivated by what she saw. Dropped into her donation box were a good sum of golden yen pieces. Shifted into a state of greed that doesn't usually show up, Reimu's mouth open slightly as a light glaze of saliva drips out from the bottom of her lip.

"H-H-Ha ha ha! Oh this is great! Fortune has smiled upon me! I'M RICH!" Reimu exclaims as she drops onto her knees and digs her grubby hands into the donation box, her earlier thoughts regarding the suspicion towards the cloaked figure dropping immediately as she shifted the position of the coins around with her fingers and raised a good chunk of them close to her face so she could better look at their golden glow.

"Heheheeheh…" With the most devilish Cheshire grin on her face, Reimu buried her face in the golden yen and sniffed it, confirming their genuineness as her heart palpitates in joy. "HEHEHEHEHEHE!" Cackling like an ecstatic madman at this point, the shrine maiden only pried away from the golden yen pieces when she happened to notice something odd in the middle of it all.

Dropping the golden yen at her kneecaps, Reimu peered into her donation box and picked up a single piece of gold. It was different from the rest of the yen pieces in that there was no diamond shaped hole in the center. In fact, some strange kanji was adorned on the front that Reimu didn't recognize. After examining the gold for a few moments, the shrine maiden merely shrugged her shoulders and dropped it back in, then swiftly proceeded to swerve herself to the left and drop right on her back. She then swung her arms are her donation box and hauled it over herself, letting the golden yen pieces come down like a heavy rainstorm until she is almost completely buried in money.

With eyelids sealed in almost unnatural bliss as she waves her arms back and forth and lets the cold chill of the golden yen tingle her body with every second that it touches her skin, Reimu finds herself feeling almost like a kid again as the gold clinks with each passing moment that her limbs move outward and inward. "So this is what it feels like to be riiiich…" She states in a blissful moan.

Reimu then widens her eyelids open and says with a mischievous grin creeping up on both sides of her face "There's only one thing I can do now that I have all this money!"

Gathering up as much yen as she can into the pockets of her skirt, the shrine maiden makes a mad sprint across the walkway in front of her shrine, blowing aside all manner of leaves in her wake as she descends her staircase with her superhuman speed, caring little about the weight of all the yen as it rattles inside of her pockets as she makes her way through the forest and heads towards the Human Village.

As she nears her destination, Reimu slows down her sprint to a respectable speed and grinds her feet along the ground to halt herself the rest of the way. A wall of dust rises up on both sides of the shrine maiden's body as she brakes to a stop, the noise of her feet grinding against the ground alerting the wandering humans of her incoming presence in the process. As a crowd of a few humans look towards Reimu at the entrance to the village, their eyelids sink with looks of indifference on their face and they continue on with their business without a care in the world.

Reimu, on the other hand, looks smugly upon the humans as she folds her lips into a way too goofy looking grin and squeezes her eyelids until there was merely a slit open for her vision. The shrine maiden then closes her eyelids and casually strolled into the village, swinging her arms back and forth with her head held up high as the yen continues to rattle, only Reimu swings her hips back and forth slightly to make them rattle louder so the humans could clearly hear the contents of her pockets.

Some humans turned their gaze towards her in confusion, but it wasn't until the glimmer of gold struck the eyes of one of the adults that discussion traveled through the village. "How did she get any money?" "This is a nightmare, this is gonna make her even more insufferable" and "It was probably all counterfeited by a god" were some of the many sentences that traveled through the village and entered the ears of Reimu Hakurei, causing her to snicker behind her smile as she walked towards a single destination.

Near the center of the village lied a lone sake shop, a place that Reimu had always wanted to check for herself ever since the oni Suika Ibuki introduced her to the drink but never once had the money to afford such a luxury. But now the shrine maiden could not only swing apart both sides of the cloth representing the door of the lone wooden building, but she could walk up to the portly bearded owner of this shop behind his tiny wooden desk and proclaim in a straightforward manner "GIVE ME ALL OF YOUR BEST SAKE!"

The man turns towards Reimu with a surprised yet indifferent look on his face as he boldly states without fear "Ha! Sorry shrine maiden, but your loud noises still won't pry even a single drop of sake from my shop! I told you before, if you want it, you have to pa-"

As he wipes down a bronze sake dish that he had spent days crafting, the portly man fails to notice as Reimu digs into her pockets and slams a good dozen or two pieces of golden yen on the desk, at which point the man turns to face all the money and nearly has a heart attack not simply because of the amount of yen but because of the person who was giving it to him. And that was not the beginning of it all, as Reimu dumped more and more yen onto his desk, causing the old man to drop his durable sake dish against the ground and put a small unfixable dent into it while he clasps the wall behind him with both hands almost in fear of what he was seeing.

Stuttering in an attempt to come up with a single word to describe what he was seeing, the portly man watches as Reimu leans forward with her elbows atop the golden yen pile as she grins and says to the man in a blissful tone of voice "I'll take it all to go now~"

After a good ten minutes of the sake owner calming down and Reimu fusing a bunch of seals close together with some magic to create a large cup-like net, the shrine maiden walks out of the store with a smile on her face and about thirty or so stone pots of finely brewed sake piled up on top of the net of seals she made. Grinning like a madman, Reimu began to walk out of the village with sake following close behind and her eyelids shut as she merrily swung her arms through the air and earning glares of ire from all the villagers as she walked.

But due to a lack of attention, Reimu runs into someone from behind nose first and is pushed back a good couple of feet into her pile of sake as she slowly opens her eyelids and says "Hey! What's the big ide-"

Upon taking a good look at the person she ran into, the shrine maiden's expression turns towards one of annoyance as she recognizes the figure and says "Ugh…Its you."

The person turns themselves around gently to glance down at the shrine maiden. It was a regal gal of above-average stature but with a slim figure that looked almost masculine. She had very light, almost platinum blonde hair that was styled to look like either ears or horns as well as grey eyes that looked to be holding back a fountain of wisdom within. In her thin right fingers was a wooden rod called a shake that she laid against the bottom of her chin as she looked down at Reimu. The girl wore purple headgear that was similar in appearance to headphones from the outside world, and her clothes consist of a purple dress under a white vest with elaborate trimming.

The girl said with a calm smile on her face that perfectly contrasted Reimu's boisterous nature "Ah, the Hakurei shrine maiden, what a pleasure it is to see you here today."

Reimu scowls and murmurs under her breath "The feeling isn't mutual." The girl raises her right eyebrow as though she heard the whisper, but the shrine maiden proceeds to smirk and glance up at the gal as she puffs her chest out and declares proudly "Hahaha, you aren't just looking at any ordinary shrine maiden now! For now my riches extend to the high heavens, dwarfing even the fortunes of princes and gods!"

Reaching into her pockets, the shrine maiden pulls out a large sum of money with both hands and holds it all out in front of her body, a few pieces of yen dropping onto the ground before it is quickly pillaged by the younger humans as they kneel down beside the unsuspecting Reimu. The girl standing before the shrine maiden looks down in shock at the amount of money being shown before her, and with a smile still on her face she says "Ah yes, you do seem to have acquired a large amount of wealth."

"Yes I do! That makes me better than you Miko!" Reimu says, utilizing an incredibly crazy form of logic that the one called Toyosatomimi no Miko merely brushes aside without so much as a word. Looking down at the pile of coins in the shrine maiden's hand, Miko happens to notice the golden "yen" piece with the mysterious Kanji on it. Taking her left hand down, Miko quickly plucks the mysterious coin out while Reimu closes her eyelids.

Miko examines the coin over the span of five seconds, and her glare suddenly becomes more serious until she's snapped out of her train of thought by Reimu exclaiming "Hey! That's my golden yen piece!"

Miko glances over at the furious eyed Reimu and slowly places the mysterious yen piece back in with the rest of the pile, saying with a smile on her face as she taps her shaku against her chin "For now you are welcome to enjoy your fortune. But in time greed only brings misfortune…I hope you realize that before its too late."

Miko then walks past the annoyed and puzzled Reimu, her eyelids slanting in concern as she thinks about the yen piece she saw. However, the shrine maiden stuffs her golden yen pieces away and states in a disgusted tone of voice "Ugh, I hate that so-called 'prince'."

Trying to let Miko's presence not ruin her amazing day, the shrine maiden turns around and starts to walk out of village with the sake following close behind in the net. After traveling through the forest and ascending the staircase to her shrine, Reimu's eyes widen in utter shock. All the leaves were gone from sight, bringing a super wide smile on her face as she merrily starts to walk across the cleaned stone walkway, thinking deep down that she would never have to clean the leaves in front of her shrine again.

Reimu walks towards the porch of her shrine and sits down on it, letting the many sake bottles fall down to the right of her body by disabling her seals. The shrine maiden then pulls a loose board off to the left of where she sits and reaches in with her right hand as she bends over to the left, pulling out a red sake dish to help herself drink the sake that she bought. One bottle is popped open with a single flick of Reimu's right thumb, and she happily pours the sake into the dish. The beautiful clear liquid flows into the dish and splash back and forth, glistening within her pupils as drool slips between her lips.

Once the sake has been poured, Reimu glances over her right shoulder at her donation box and looks at all the money that still lies within, thinking to herself _"Life is great…"_ Something that she hadn't really let come to mind for quite a long time.

The shrine maiden lifts the dish up and takes a sip from her sake while tilting her head towards the sky, enjoying the greatest warmth flowing down into her gullet as the sky seems to be parting to reveal the sun. Everything was going right for Reimu at that moment, and she loved it.

After a good hour or so of indulging in sake, the shrine maiden falls unconscious on her back, her right arm slunk beside her head as she moans cheerfully and a drunken blush appears on her face. Night starts to fall along Gensokyo, and as it does two figures walk up to the Hakurei shrine with a snicker on their faces. They both look down at Reimu, and with their faces distorted in laughter one says to the other _"Alright, lets go on to Phase 2!"_

The two figures then rustle through Reimu's shrine in the dead of night while the shrine maiden is unconscious, and once they are done they leave without making any sound to wake her up. Night passes rather quickly for the sleeping "beauty", and one more figure shows up to do stuff at the shrine without her knowledge. The morning then comes, and with a blissful night rest Reimu quickly wakes up and stretches her arms into the air and lets out an almost purr-like yawn as she regains full consciousness.

Reimu, merry from the sake and money she had obtained last night, blissfully closed her eyelids and kicks her feet in the air, but hears something rustling as she moves and quickly opens her eyelids to see what created that noise. The shrine maiden then freaks out and her heart skips a beat as she sees before her a ludicrously sized sea of fallen leaves that extends to the arch at the top of the staircase to her shrine. The sea of leaves was as tall as half of her body, and its presence proved to be a terrible start to Reimu's entire day.

"WHAT THE HELL!" The shrine maiden exclaims after staring at the leaves in disbelief for a good ten seconds before she rises to her feet and stamps down on her porch as hard as she can with her right foot. She couldn't believe how many leaves there were, especially since she knew she didn't leave THIS many out yesterday. Something was definitely up, but the leaves were just a prelude to Reimu's problems.

Glancing off to the right from the corner of her eye, Reimu notices that all of her sake was now gone, an amazing feat considering how many bottles there were in total. But the worst was yet to come for the shrine maiden, as with a quick turnaround Reimu noticed that her donation box (and by extension all of her golden yen pieces) was gone. All that remained on the ground was that single piece of "yen" with the Kanji on it. Reimu quickly picked this "yen" piece up and glared it at, her body twitching in absolute anger as she tightly clenched the piece in her right hand and the front of her hair shades over her eyes as she grits her teeth.

With her emotions focused only on one thing, Reimu fails to notice someone descending through the sunny sky. It was an ordinary magician with a witch's hat wrapped with a purple bow and a series of black clothes that fit the witch's ensemble she has going. While most of her blonde hair is covered by the bottom of the hat the rest extends down an inch past both of her shoulders, with the left side tied to the braid by a purple ribbon. She wears maroon colored shoes with small purple ribbons on them, and a red ribbon around her neck finishes off her clothes. As this ordinary magician glides through the air on her customary broom, she glances down with her brown eyes at the Hakurei shrine and notices the sea of leaves that has suddenly come to be.

Saying nothing on the matter, the magician notices Reimu standing with her back turned towards her and exclaims "Oy, Reimu, what's going on here?!"

The magician descends from the sky, but instead of leaping off of her broom as she gets close she flips herself so she is now sitting sideways along the length of her ride since she didn't feel like landing atop the leaves. The shrine maiden doesn't responds at first, causing the magician to exclaim in a much louder tone of voice "HEY REIMU, YOU ALIVE THERE?!"

Reimu quickly turns towards the magician and glares at her with furious eyes, her lips curled into a devilish scowl as she stamps her right foot repeatedly against the ground and causes the very shrine to quake as she exclaims to the magician "SOMEBODY STOLE MY GODDAMN DONATION BOX MARISA!"

The magician, now identifiable by the name Marisa Kirisame, barely flinches in surprise at what was said by her friend. Chuckling to herself, the magician waves her right fingers in the air as she leans her left hand against the broomstick and smiles, saying to Reimu just a moment later "Oh come on now Reimu, you probably just lost it somewhere in your shrine. Retrace your steps, what happened yesterday?"

The shrine maiden had not been entirely lost to anger, and with the straightforward words of her friend Reimu calms down for a moment and thinks back to everything that happened yesterday. Most of her memories before she fell asleep are hazy thanks to the sake, but she nonetheless recalls most everything else. "Well, first I went to sweep the leaves from my yard, and then some cloaked person visited my shrine and gave me tons of money! I used that money to buy tons of sake, I ran into that egotistical Taoist prince afterwards, and then I came back here to drink sake without a care in the world."

"Well there's your problem!" Marisa declares in a boy-ish tone of revelation as she snaps her right fingers in front of her body and says to Reimu "You must have gotten so incredibly drunk that you ended up doing something with your donation box while you were in the middle of a stupor. Just go do a quick run down of your shrine and you'll likely find it."

Reimu, before she turns around and heads into her shrine, remembers the golden "yen" piece she had grasped in her hand and holds it up so Marisa can get a good look at it, saying in a puzzled tone of voice "By the way, if someone did end up taking my donation box, why do you think they left this behind?"

Marisa merely shrugs her shoulders, keeping her balance on her broom intact for the one moment that her arms are detached from it as she says to Reimu "Don't ask me, I know nothing about gold."

"But you're a magician!" Reimu exclaims in a peeved tone of voice to her friend, only to be met with a response of "Yeah, but gold and shit is more in line with alchemy, something I don't dabble in during my spare time. Now if Patchouli was here talking to you-"

The shrine maiden shrugs her shoulder and lets out a deflated sigh, letting go of the coin as she turns around and says in a indifferent tone towards Marisa "Whatever Marisa, I get the point. I'll try and find the donation box now."

Reimu then heads into the shrine, and once she has traveled a fair distance Marisa's cheeks puff up wide as her eyes widen in a childish manner and she tries her hardest to contain her laughter. With her left hand leaning on top of her broom, Marisa reaches into the back of her skirt and quickly pulls out Reimu's donation box, which has been painted with dark-purple, light-brown and black color that blend together like gradient on all sides. Letting out a light snicker, the Ordinary Magician thinks to herself _"Hahaha, can't believe Reimu is falling for this so easily."_

Looking down at the shrine, Marisa continues to think with a mischievous smirk on her face _"Everything is going smoothly. Thanks to my partner's help yesterday, I was able to snag Reimu's donation box while she was unconscious and paint it in the colors of that Buddhist Reimu dislikes. Now all I have to do is place it back where it belongs and wait for Reimu to come back, and once she reacts to the paint job I'll reveal everything we've done."_

Marisa then takes a look down at the coin on the ground and says to herself "Though I have to wonder where this odd coin came from…Oh well, none of my concern."

The Ordinary Magician starts to lower her broom towards the porch of the shrine, but before she puts the donation box down she hears and anguished scream that nearly shakes the ground around the shrine and actually frightens Marisa to the point that she thought the place was under attack by a powerful monster before she recognizes the noise and says in a scared stuttered "R-Reimu?"

Retracting the donation box in front of her chest, the Ordinary Magician watches as out of the blue the roof of the Hakurei shrine has a large hole blown through it by a human-sized red and white yin-yang orb that was quite clearly kicked into the air judging by how fast it thrusts through the sky and disappears without a trace. Reimu emerges through the hole of the shrine with her eyes barely visibly thanks to the hellish red glow that illuminated her pupils. With a dark grey aura surrounding her body as two yin-yang orbs float beside her, the shrine maiden said in a deep raspy voice that would be more fitting on a demonic male _"I will find whoever stole my donation box, and I will fuck them up."_

Reimu then presses her body back and launches herself through the air like a scalding black bullet, the wind pressure from her launch nearly sweeping Marisa off of her broom as she tries to turn and watch where her friend is flying off to. With her hat now tilted to the right, the ordinary magician glances up in frightened disbelief from beyond the rim of her hat and says in a stuttering tone of voice as she presses the donation box close to her chest "H-Ho boy, this got out of control rather quickly."

"Yes, I would say that's a fair assessment." A second person says in a laid back, serene tone of voice, causing Marisa's beating heart to skip as she flips around and sees someone floating in the air above the porch of the shrine.

It was a woman of unknown age that wore the excess of her blue hair in the shape of two Chinese style loops that are secured in place by a relatively large hair stick. The lady wears a simple teal dress with a floral design and a white and blue vest with Chinese patterns alongside a flower that is secured by a belt around her waist. Though the woman had a youthful demeanor, she simultaneously had an air of wisdom around her thanks to the gentle white cloth she rides atop of along with the way she extended her legs and laid her hands on both sides of her body.

With a tender smile at the mischievous Marisa, this mysterious woman glared down with her blue eyes and said "I thought you planned on placing the donation box on the porch. So why did Reimu suddenly depart in search of said object?"

Marisa, recognizing that the woman wasn't a threat to her life, let out a sigh of relief and said to her with a nervous chuckle slipping through her lips as she rubs the back of her head with her left hand "W-Well, I guess I didn't time the donation box placement well enough…Or I severely underestimated how badly Reimu would react to the box disappearing."

"Mmm-hmm…" The mysterious woman responded in a serene murmur, proceeding to smile as she says calmly to Marisa "I do admit that we probably went too far with this prank. Go ahead and tell her the truth and we can call this whole thing off."

Marisa continues to chuckle, saying to the woman "Yeaaah, because telling her the truth is going to put her in a better mood" in a very sarcastic voice before sighing and flipping herself around, placing the donation box on her lap as she glances over her left shoulder and says "Look, I'm gonna just try and stop Reimu before she tears apart all of Gensokyo in search of her box. I'll be back later Seiga."

Marisa then blasts off towards the sky on her broom after Reimu, and once the ordinary magician has departed far enough the hermit known as Seiga Kaku creases her serene smile into a smirk of ill-intentions. Her right arm rises as she leans forward and her face distorts into a villainous expression, completed with slanted eyebrows and a crumpled nose as she places her right fist underneath her chin and quietly says "Oh, this has all been too easy for me…"

Seiga then turns herself around on her cloth and looks down at the lone "yen" piece that lies on the porch of the shrine, saying in a deep whisper to herself "Now then, time for my real plan to commence…" The hermit then raises her hands out in front of her body and closes her eyelids while beginning to chant a spell…

Meanwhile, unaware of how duped she has been, Marisa flies through the skies of Gensokyo in pursuit of her friend, thinking all the way _"Darn it Reimu, I didn't think you'd react this badly to your donation box being taken. It was just going to be a simple prank, not the precursor to an incident!"_

Suddenly, a violent explosion rocks the air, causing the ordinary magician to shift her view to the right as she sees a monstrous plume of dirt and bark flying into the sky with a flash of red splitting the plume in two instantly as a small figure is sent flying towards the ground at breakneck speeds. Marisa sees Reimu standing in the center of where the plume once lies, a circle of searing red ground lying in the center of the forest below her as she keeps her right palm extended through the sky and same serious glare on her face that she had before.

A young fairy with six icy wings and a blue skirt tries to flee past Reimu, but the shrine maiden quickly zips in front of the fleeing fairy and grabs her by the collar of her shirt. Staring deep into the brave eyes of this little fairy, Reimu growls demonically and says to her _"Where is my donation box you little shit? I'm going to beat the answer out of you if you don't start talking."_

The fairy grabs Reimu's wrist with both arms and defiantly kicks her legs in the air to beat at the shrine maiden's stomach, putting on a shit-eating grin as she opens her mouth as though ready to say something only for Reimu to release her grip on the fairy's collar and swiftly deliver a powerful bitchslap with the back of her right hand to send the fairy rocketing through the air. The fairy flies right past Marisa as the ordinary magician moves towards her friend with a worried expression on her face as she looks at the shrine maiden and exclaims to her "Reimu, you have to stop beating people up! You won't find your donation box this way!"

The shrine maiden hears the words of her friend and turns at her with her neck creaking in pain as she adjusts the rest of her body soon afterwards, her hands floating beside her body limply as she says in a distorted tone of voice _"What are you talking about Marisa? This is fucking Gensokyo, we always solve our problems by beating each other up!"_

Reimu then glares forward with widened eyes as she notices something similar to her donation box laying on Marisa's lap. The shrine maiden's scowl returns as she tightly clenches her fists and forces the yin-yang orbs on both sides of her body to spin rapidly through the air as they glow a pale black, exclaiming in disbelief towards her friend _"SO YOU STOLE MY DONATION BOX MARISA?! AND NOT ONLY THAT, YOU DESCRATED IT WITH THE COLORS OF THAT IMPURE BUDDHIST?!"_

Marisa halts her broomstick a good ten feet away from Reimu and swings her arms in an X-shaped cross in front of her body, shaking her head nervously as she exclaims rationally to her friend "No no no, you got it all wrong Reimu, I didn't steal your donation box! I-I just borrowed it f-for…"

The ordinary magician had a terribly hard time bringing herself to tell the truth to Reimu in spite of how crucial it was that she do. It was the frightening look on the shrine maiden's face that made this matter so difficult for Marisa, and it didn't help that Reimu looked ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"_Oh, you 'borrowed' my donation box? Yeah right, you think I'm going to just up and accept that reasoning you use on Patchouli all the time?! I know what's really going on here…You are betraying me for that goddamn Buddhist! It only makes sense that someone who desires immortality would try and earn the favor of an eternally youthful magician! You planned on giving her my donation box and the gold that lies within it as an offering! You backstabbing little rat!" _Reimu's rant at Marisa, devoid of all reasoning, was more than enough to convince the ordinary magician that she didn't have to look at her friend hesitantly.

Keeping herself supported with clasped legs on both sides of the broomstick, Marisa quickly reaches into her dress and pulls out her mini-hakkero, aiming it at Reimu as she smirks and says "Alright Reimu, if that's what you wish to believe, then I guess I have no choice in the matter. Time to bring you back to your senses!"

Before Reimu can attack her, Marisa holds her mini-hakkero in front of her body and quickly opens the center of it, focusing magic heavily into the object to create a large and powerful beam of magical energy that spreads out in a large cone that quickly engulfs the shrine maiden. Marisa nearly blows herself off of her broomstick from the recoil of the attack, but keeps her mini-hakkero grasped tightly as her Master Spark blasts Reimu with its full power.

"_Come on Reimu, wake up from this." _Marisa states in her mind as she grits her teeth. The energy from her Master Spark starts to quickly fizzle out of sight, leaving a cloud of smoke in the air thanks to the burning sky as the ordinary magician pulls her mini-hakkero back and says with an optimistic look in her eyes "Hey Reimu, you back to normal in there?" Her tone was so casual it was almost as if she hadn't blasted her crazed best friend with her signature attack at near point blank range.

Reimu's figure starts to float into view in the smoke cloud with orbs following close behind on both sides, and Marisa's fingers nervously twitch in concern until Reimu's entire body pushes through the cloud without that vile aura surrounding her body. "Reimu! You finally pulled yourself to-"

Reimu dashes beside Marisa and quickly raises her left fist into the air, making the ordinary magician take pause and let out a light "Eh?" before the shrine maiden clobbers her directly atop her head with one strongly delivered downward punch, her arm being swung in front of her chest as she has an irritated pout on her face.

Marisa quickly shelves her mini-hakkero in her skirt and places her hands atop her head to rub the spot where Reimu socked her, saying in an all-too casual tone of voice "Oy Reimu, did you really need to strike me so hard?"

The shrine maiden, not in the mood for much bullshit as evidenced by the twitching of her tightly closed eyelids and indifferent scowl. "You have one minute to explain yourself Marisa. What the hell are you doing with my donation box?!"

As Reimu swipes the donation box back from under Marisa's nose, the ordinary magician lifts her head while continuing to rub her head with her right hand and grasping the broomstick with her left. Marisa then says to her friend "Alright alright, geez…I swear, you are scarier than anything in Gensokyo when you are angry…" Mumbling that last part to herself, Marisa collects her thoughts and takes her hand off her head as she flips her body around to face Reimu.

Swinging her hands in front of her body, the ordinary magician proceeds to lengthily explain to the shrine maiden "A few days ago, I was approached by that blue hermit from the incident a few months ago. She came to my house in search of my mischievous nature, for she wanted to pull a prank on you and thought it would be fun to have some assistance from the master. The plan was simple but at the same time elaborate. First the hermit mentioned distracting you with golden yen pieces so you'd go crazy with greed and abandon the shrine for a few minutes, then she would open holes in the ground with her powers to get rid of all of the leaves, and I could jump into her pocket dimension and use a duplication spell on every single leaf.

We left your shrine before you got back, but came back later once you had drank yourself unconscious. I took your donation box and Seiga took the money back while also opening the holes back up in the ground and drawing out all the leaves that had been duplicated under your nose. I then painted the donation box to match Byakuren's color scheme since I figured it would be funny to see how you'd react to that, and you pretty much know the rest from there on out."

After Marisa finishes her explanation, she nervously smiles at Reimu, only to be met with another blow to the top of her head from the shrine maiden, who scowls and says to her friend "You dumbass! Why did you think that taking my donation box would be a good idea?!"

Marisa, while rubbing her head and letting out a quiet "Ow" looks up at Reimu with a single teardrop forming in her eye from the pain as she grins and says to her friend "I honestly didn't think you'd get so upset over this."

"HOW LONG HAVE WE KNOWN EACH OTHER FOR?!" Reimu exclaims towards Marisa in utter disbelief, her right arm flailing back and forth as she holds her donation box under her left armpit.

Marisa proceeds to shrug her shoulders and nonchalantly respond to her friend with "I don't know, is PC-98 still considered canon?" which elicits an understandable "What?" from Reimu.

The ordinary magician then sighs and rubs the back of her head nervously, saying calmly to her friend "Never mind…I guess you're right, it was really dumb of me to use one of your personal belongings in a prank."

Marisa then looks up at Reimu and says with a smile on her face "Next time I'm going to just prank you the ol' fashioned way!"

Reimu slaps the front of her face with her right hand and says in a mumble that has to slip out from both sides of her palm "That's not really any better Marisa, but I accept your apology nonetheless."

The shrine maiden then thinks back to Marisa's explanation and everything that has happened so far, and something in particular caught her attention. That strange golden "yen" piece that was left on the ground where her donation box lied. Looking at the ordinary magician with a curious glance as she holds her left hand in front of her lips, Reimu asks "Hey Marisa, what was up with that odd yen piece I showed you?"

"Huh?" Marisa snaps out of her smile and tilts her head in confusion, saying in response to her friend's question "I had nothing to do with that yen piece. If anything, Seiga probably put that in with the rest of them."

Reimu then glances over Marisa's body and notices something odd in the direction of her shrine, a thin purple smog to be exact. The shrine maiden then slaps her forehead and exclaims out loud "Goddamn it, Marisa, you let that stinkin' hermit get free access to my shrine!"

The shrine maiden then sprints off through the air, blowing right past Marisa and spinning the ordinary magician around in place before she regains control and clasps her hands around the front of her broomstick, leaning forward as she rockets off and exclaims in panic "Darn it Reimu, stop recklessly jumping into things!"

Both heroines make their way for the Hakurei shrine, the smog growing thicker with each passing second until they finally arrive back at the shrine, where with a thrust of her hands Reimu uses her orbs to sweep across the walkway and blow away all leaves. The gale that is created by her motions cause the hermit Seiga to take notice. Lowering her arms away from the smog that is emerging from the golden "yen" piece on the shrine's porch, Seiga turns around and slouches against the left side of her "pure" white cloth, smiling mischievously as she watches both the shrine maiden and Marisa Kirisame land on the ground in front of her.

"Ah, welcome back to…Ahem…_'your'_ shrine, Reimu Hakurei." Seiga says in a welcoming tone of voice, a perfect contrast to the unwelcoming glare the shrine maiden is currently giving her as she slowly starts to advance towards the hermit.

Marisa holds her broom in her left hand while pulling out her mini-hakkero in her right to back up Reimu, only for the shrine maiden to hold her left arm out to stop the ordinary magician, in a way projecting the words "I'm going to handle this myself" without opening her lips. Reimu then looks back at Seiga and says to her directly "Get the hell out of my shrine, and take your 'yen' piece with you" gesturing towards the arch behind her with a violent thrust of her right thumb of her shoulder.

Seiga straightens her posture on her cloth and looks at Reimu, grinning brightly as she stretches her arms out gloriously and says to the shrine maiden "Oh come now, I have no reason to surrender when my victory has been all but secured."

Reimu rolls her eyes upon hearing the hermit start breaking into a cliché'd villainous speech, and says to her quickly "Look, I just want to know something real quick. Do you take full credit for manipulating Marisa into helping you do whatever you are doing to my shrine?"

Seiga lays the tips of her right fingers on her chest and leans slightly to the left, closing her eyelids in serenity as she says to the shrine maiden "Why yes, I do wish to take all the credit here. For you see, it was all too easy to-"

Seiga gets barely any time to speak, as Reimu combines a bunch of seals around her tightly clenched right fist and rushes the hermit, pounding her straight in the gut with all of her superhuman strength. The hermit's body is jiggled by a shockwave radiating out from the center of her body, and after being allowed only a second to widen her eyes and hack out saliva in shock the seals explode around Reimu's fist to add further power to the shrine maiden's punch. Seiga is launched through the air, crashing into the back of the Hakurei shrine and breaking through it with ease as her body quickly descends and impacts with the ground, but the force of the punch gave her enough momentum to send her bounding back up into the air. Seiga then finally ends her flight crashing into an incredibly thick tree back first.

With the hermit's indent now left in the tree forever, the shrine maiden quickly flies through her broken shrine and uses about thirty seals to forcibly wrap Seiga's arms against her body and keep her from making a slippery escape with her powers. Reimu then grabs the hermit by the collar and tears her off of the tree, dragging her through the air behind her body until they are back in front of the shrine, at which point Reimu tosses Seiga onto the walkway. The hermit opens her eyelids and despite the damage to her body she smiles at the angered shrine maiden and says in a nonchalant tone of voice "Now that wasn't very nice, you should have let me finish."

Reimu gestures towards the growing purple smog in the sky with her right hand, exclaiming to Seiga "You're going to tell me how to fix that right now!"

Seiga's smile widens as she leans back with her legs in a criss-cross position, a single care not passing through her mind as she says to the shrine maiden "You may have caught me, but that isn't enough to force me to reveal how to stop this. But before my plan succeeds, perhaps you will allow me to reveal just why I went through all the trouble of-"

The hermit then flinches in shock as she sees a bright flash of golden light beyond Reimu's body, and in an instant the purple smog starts fading out of sight. The sunlight is allowed to seep down upon the Hakurei shrine, and as Seiga shifts her body mass in order to get a better look at what had happened she grins slyly at who she sees. Standing above the broken remains of the mysterious "yen" piece was the Crown Prince herself, Toyosatomimi no Miko.

Miko sheathes her radiant sword and turns to look at the puzzled Reimu and Marisa as she leaps off the porch and lands off the left of where Seiga currently sits. The hermit bows her head and says in an eluding tone of voice "My prince, what an honor it is to see you here."

Miko looks over at Seiga with a glance of indifference from the corner of her eye as she holds her shaku in front of her lips, only for her to brandish it at the hermit while calmly saying to her "Spare me your beggary, Seiga."

Reimu and Marisa exchange glances at each other with widened eyes of bewilderment, and then both of them look back at Miko and Seiga before the shrine maiden exclaims to the Crown Prince "What the hell are you doing here?!" in a very uncivilized tone of voice.

Miko looks over at Reimu and says to her with a smile on her face "When I ran into you yesterday and saw that mysterious 'yen' piece, I went back to my Mausoleum and decided to check up on my treasure. Sure enough, a large sum of golden yen had been stolen, and a small slit had been left in the wall the room that had an angle similar to what you'd find in a perfectly circular hole. After doing some research on the Kanji of the "yen" piece I saw, I recognized the danger you were in and came here post-haste to deal with the problem myself, since I knew you'd likely not listen to me."

Seiga, to the best of her ability, wiggles her arms in front of her body and lightly claps at Miko, saying in a genuine tone of praise "Bravo my prince, bravo indeed. Nothing gets past your perceptive eyes…Or so you probably wish to believe."

The hermit then grins and after grabbing Miko's full attention she says "The coin you destroyed? That was actually a fake. I had already used the real one to fulfill my goals long before the Hakurei maiden arrived."

Miko then responds with a sly grin of her own, stating in turn "So you think, Seiga. But I knew you would probably hide the real yen piece out of sight, so after discovering your plot I had Tojiko seek out your house and use one of my spells to seek out your unique yen piece and take it so I could deal with it later, at the same time replacing it with a fake piece that spews out purple smog so you wouldn't get suspicious."

"You only think one step ahead Miko, and that is why I am always ahead of you. You see, I detected the presence of your little follower and had Yoshika swallow the real "yen" piece. The one your follower took was just another fake I had planted." Seiga replies.

"Well played, but not a move I couldn't have predicted. For you see, when Tojiko left your house, she dropped a seal onto the ground near the entrance that would allow me to negate the effects of the 'yen' piece from within your Jiangshi once she stepped on it with her foot." Miko replies.

"Hohoho, an interesting set of items you chose to use…But I know all of your tricks Miko. You see, upon returning home after helping the magician take the donation box, I noticed the seal on Yoshika's foot and cut it off while also ripping her stomach from her body so any aftereffects on your seal wouldn't ruin my plans. After replacing the foot and stomach I stored the first stomach away into a secret hole behind my house!" Seiga replies.

"But in the process you left another of your holes slightly open. You see, my seal was double-layered, with the intent being to either neutralize the 'yen' piece or track it with some remnant magic if that were to fail. With Futo's help, I was able to infiltrate the slit you left in my treasure room and follow the tracking magic to the real 'yen' piece." Miko says.

"Ha, but what you didn't know is that a jiangshi's stomach can perfectly replicate any magical signature I so desire, and because I knew you might track it I took the piece out and tossed the perfect magic signature adapted stomach into the dimension for you to find while tossing the real piece into the pile of leaves I had the magician duplicate, keeping an energy signature on it that only I would be able to recognize." Seiga states in a proud tone of voice.

"But unfortunately, you taught me far too well Seiga, for after realizing that I was duped into following your Jiangshi stomach I went to the shrine in the middle of the night and plucked the 'yen' piece from the pile of leaves by sensing your specific energy within the pile." Miko states.

"Very perceptive…Were it not for the fact that the magician unwittingly duplicated the 'yen' piece, creating a series of fakes that all had the same energy signature as the original. And as it so happened, you took one of the fakes, leaving me with the real one." Seiga states.

"Or so you thought, for you see-" "WILL BOTH OF YOU JUST SHUT UP ALREADY?!" Reimu, having grown increasingly impatient with the back and forth plans between Miko and Seiga, expresses her great annoyance at everything with a voice that could break the sky asunder.

The two Taoists glance over at the flustered shrine maiden, and seeing a point in what she was saying Miko turns towards Seiga and says to her "Enough of the games Seiga, what was your goal here today?"

Seiga, shrugging her shoulders as well as the seals would allow her, nonchalantly says to the Crown Prince "I did it all for you my prince. My magic, sealed within a modified yen piece, was meant to curse the Hakurei shrine with misfortune. And when the Hakurei fell, your place as the savior of Gensokyo would be all but secured, and is that not a worthy prize for one of such grace and…" bowing her head, the sly hermit finishes her sentence off with a simple mutter of "forgiveness."

Miko raises her eyebrows at the hermit's attempt at humbleness, saying with her shaku covering the expression of her lips "While I am flattered by your efforts, they were all in vain. Now that we have all been revived in Gensokyo, there is no reason for myself to associate with you."

Seiga's eyes widen in disbelief, for the first time causing her to experience something other than deceptive serenity as she looks up at Miko and says to her "B-But my prince, I don't understand…What have I done wrong?"

Miko responds coldly with "That's just it. You don't understand…And never will, even if I were to instill my own lessons into your wicked heart. But I do have a punishment in mind for you nonetheless for what you have done."

The Taoist turns towards Reimu and says to her "Do you have any problems with this? Or would you like to punish her yourself?"

With those two options being delivered to her mind, the shrine maiden only takes a few moments to think about them before saying with a brush of the back of her fingers towards the Taoist prince "Meh, do whatever you want. I already punched her hard enough in the gut for what she did."

Now that Reimu had given her rather simple opinion on this whole matter, Seiga suddenly breaks into a smile as she looks up at Miko and says to her "Unfortunately, I'm going to have to cut our time short today, my prince."

The hermit starts to sink backwards into the ground, catching the crown prince, Reimu and Marisa entirely off-guard as Seiga says to them "You may be disappointed in me now, but I will never stop trying to find out ways to give you the praise and glory you deserve!" Seiga's voice echoes into the air as she drops down into a hole that suddenly split open in the ground. A pale white hand quickly closes the hole up and groans, while Reimu leaps at where the hole once was to try and cut off Seiga's escape, only to unsurprisingly fail and be left lying on the ground with her right fist slamming once against it.

As Reimu shows annoyance at Seiga's escape, Miko taps her shaku against her chin in intrigue and points out "Hmm, so she had the Jiangshi ready to open an escape route…I must admit, I did not see that coming."

Reimu then lifts her body up and looks at Miko, exclaiming with her right hand thrust off to the side "Well?! Aren't you going to go after her?!"

The crown prince, still deep in thought, says to the eager shrine maiden "She may be my problem, but there is nothing I can do about her right now. Don't worry though, she'll have to try something much more complicated if she wants to get near your shrine again."

Reimu groans, twisting her head around and throwing her arms up as she exclaims "I don't even know what happened this time!"

The shrine maiden swings her legs into the air and plops onto her butt, folding her arms as she tries to wrap her mind around everything that happened over the last twenty-four hours only to come up with nothing no matter how hard she tried. Looking at the crown prince, Marisa asks kindly "So what did that hermit do anyways?"

Miko points her shaku at the porch of the Hakurei shrine and says in response to the inquiry "Seiga had crafted a single yen piece from my treasure vault to take on a different shape. With it she channeled in energies from the curse god by marking it with the kanji for 'Curse' and secretly planted it in your donation box with the help of her Jiangshi. The effects of the curse would have brought misfortune as she said it would, but the only reason for that is because of the negative karma that Reimu has surrounding her."

The shrine maiden rolls her eyes at Miko's last comments, and Marisa turns to her friend and says to her "Reimu, how could you not have noticed the kanji on that 'yen' piece?"

The shrine maiden shrugs her shoulders and defensively responds with "How was I expected to know that? I don't deal with curses or anything of the sort!"

Marisa nervously chuckles as she is quick to point out towards the forgetful Reimu "But Reimu, you tried to get that one Lunarian to blow up the moon with a curse." The comment the magician made causing Miko to visibly twitch in shock as she widens her normally docile eyes in disbelief.

Reimu responds with a blunt turn of the head and an equally blunt declaration of "OH YOU JUST WON'T LET ME LIVE THAT DOWN, WILL YOU? And what's your excuse Marisa? How could you, a magician, not recognize a curse?"

"Well I'm not the type of magician who dabbles in curses Reimu." Marisa truthfully admits to her friend, and Reimu immediately lets out an anguished sigh as she responds with a simple "This has really made me question if you are even a magician at all…"

Reimu looks towards her battered shrine and quickly collapses onto her back with her arms outspread, sighing as she looks towards Miko and asks "…So I'm guessing all that money was yours?"

Miko nods her head once, and the shrine maiden closes her eyelids and lets out a fizzled out sounding "Craaaaaap…So I'm broke once more…"

Marisa clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth and shakes her head, saying to her friend in a vain attempt to cheer her up "Yep, the dreaded status quo…"

Reimu flares her eyelids open and glares at Marisa, saying to her in a tone of disbelief "You know, this WAS all your fault in the first place Marisa."

The ordinary magician grins nervously after hearing her friend out, and after Reimu puts a sly smirk on her face the shrine maiden kicks herself onto her feet and flips around to look at Marisa, saying with a coy glimmer in her eyes "In fact…I should force you to repair my shrine as punishment for this whole mess!"

Marisa's eyes widen in shock at what Reimu declared, her arms swinging close to her chest as she recoils back and declares with a face-flushed expression "WHAAAAAAAAT?! Reimu, I already apologized for my part in this!"

"An apology doesn't change the fact that my shrine got damaged!" Reimu says, ignoring the fact that it was HER actions that caused damage to her shrine in the first place.

Before the two friends can continue to bicker, Miko walks between and glances over at the shrine maiden, saying to her "I am willing to overlook the things you said to me yesterday if you let me have permission to repair your shrine. Does that sound fair, Hakurei?"

The delicate tone of the Crown Prince is met with an uncivilized blurt from Reimu "And how can I trust that you'll put everything back the way its meant to be? Trust me, the last time I had someone repair my shrine they had vile intentions in doing so."

Miko smiles at the straightforward Reimu and says to her "Unlike Seiga, I have no intention of trying to establish myself in Gensokyo by getting rid of my competition. I will earn the praise of the humans and Youkai all on my own, and if that eventually means coming into conflict with you, Byakuren and the Shinto god on Youkai Mountain then that's how things will go…But for now, I would like you to consider me a neutral party and accept my help."

Reimu, barely wanting to think about Miko's unimportant words, let out a light sigh and swung her right hand around in the air, saying to the Crown Prince "Alright fine, do what you want."

Miko nods her head and smiles, turning herself around and saying to the shrine maiden as she begins to quietly depart "I shall be back tomorrow with assistance. I'm sorry once more for Seiga's antics."

The Crown Prince then leaves the area by descending down the stairs, and Reimu is left to her own devices alongside Marisa. With this minor incident apparently solved though, there appeared to be something that was still bugging the shrine maiden as evidenced by the scowl on her face. The ordinary magician asks "What's the matter now Reimu?"

Reimu grasps the bottom of her chin with her right hand and says "So the yen pieces were the property of that egotist, the donation box was stolen by you, and the leaves were hidden away by Seiga and duplicated by you…So what happened to all the sake I bought?"

Suddenly, as though to answer the shrine maiden's long lingering question, a poof of smoke causes both heroines to turn themselves around and watch as the tiny oni Suika Ibuki appears on the porch of the shrine in a resting position with one of the sake bottles Reimu bought trickling its final drop into Suika's mouth. With a blissful drunk blush on her face, the oni says to the shrine maiden "Hey Reimu, thanks for buying all that sake, it was VEEEEERY tasty."

Reimu and Marisa then gesture towards Suika with their fingers and say in unison "That's our Suika!" Which is accompanied by a very, very out of place laugh track in the atmosphere of the Hakurei shrine…

"_The end…_

…_.You may wake up now. I know the story was a little longer than the last, but it is very rude to fall asleep in front of the storyteller. Oh? You say you haven't fallen asleep? Well then, my mistake…But if that's the case, then your skills at enduring such lengthy tales have improved since the last time we met. _

…_Oh? You have a question to ask me this time? You are wondering just what this story had to do with the hermit's hidden side? Well you see, the answer is quite simple…This whole ordeal has been nothing more than the hermit's idea of a prank. Yes, the hermit is a bit of a jokester, even if her methods are far more dangerous than what you humans perceive as a normal prank. _

_Well then, with this story done and over with it is time once more for me to retreat…After all, the winter slumber soon approaches me, and that may lessen our time spent together…But I will make arrangements to have someone else tell stories if it comes down to my hibernation preventing me from doing so. Until next time, humans beyond the static veil…"_

**Story 2 - Finish**


	3. Contempt

**Story 3: Contempt**

"…_.Oh! Pardon me for dozing over there, I didn't actually expect to see you at this particular time. Yes, my hair is a little ruffled and my clothing is different than usual, but you know far too well just why I am like this. In just a week time, I will be entering a state of hibernation because of Winter's arrival. I have already made arrangements for the next three months for my subordinate Shikigami Ran to deal with the stories until I awaken…A task that may prove to be too great for her, but any failure on her end shall be dealt with swiftly once I awake._

_Now then, since my body is starting to drain out, I am afraid I will likely have to keep my tale shorter than the last one. I know that may come as a disappointment to you humans beyond the static veil, but I assure you that there will be plenty to hear once Ran takes the helm…_

_Why do I sleep, you may ask? Well, that's my secret and mine alone…Of course, it should be quite obvious if you know even a iota about me. But it is crucial now more than ever that I rest up, for in due time I along with the rest of Gensokyo shall have to deal with a very major threat. Those of you who've read another tale placed into this sacred treasure boxes of stories you see me in now should know about this threat, and perhaps those who have dug even deeper can identify the threat perfectly._

_For now though, you should not concern yourself with my safety or that of Gensokoy's citizens. Instead, let me lure you away from your concerns with a story told from the perspective of a Youkai that has masqueraded as a human for as long as she can remember…Yes I know it seems as though I shouldn't be able to do that, but I assure you that I have my undiscoverable methods."_

It is a normal day in the Human Village, as in that dreaded sunlight is out once more and the air is warm and humid. But what else can I hope to expect in the "Mythical Realm of Paradise" Gensokyo? Just like every other morning, I wake up from the front of a lone maple tree just outside the south of the Human Village, unfolding my arms from the front of my chest as I kick myself onto my feet and grimace at the bright glow of the sun.

Hidden behind the collar of my red and blue capelet is a scowl towards the current state of weather. With a disposition that showed discontent towards the sun, you'd likely think that I'd prefer the rain to the glowing sun, but that is not the case. I dislike all manner of weather equally. The sun is too hot, the snow is too cold, the rain is too wet, the overcast is too gloomy…And the sky that keeps these conditions occurring time after time again linger in the sky, forever out of the reach of my punishing hand.

I stretch my pale right hand towards the sun and clasp it in my hand to depict my thoughts on the weather, drawing my arm back towards my body and holding the fist in front of my body as devious thoughts filter through my mind and my scowl turns into a happy smirk. But that feeling lasts but a moment, as I dispel my fantasy and draw my unfurled hand beside my body. With another day having dawned, I headed towards the Human Village for my usual routine.

Stepping into the village with my right foot forward, I observe the awakening first steps of the humans in the early mornings. As always they wear their kimonos and other strange clothes…But who am I to call others clothes' strange? After all, along with my capelet I wear a red trimmer blue bow behind my sleek, dome-cut red hair, and with my shirt, skirt and boots sharing a black and dark-red color scheme I definitely stand out amongst all these others humans.

But despite my obviously different appearance, no human ever throws more then a single suspicious glance my way as I walk past their houses. Day in and day out, my true identity has been concealed from these humans, and I could care less if it ever were to be exposed.

As I am now, a rokurokubi Youkai walking proudly through the Human Village, I will turn a deaf-ear towards the fear-driven racism of the humans were they to ever find out who I really am. I have never had a home to call my own, I have always been a wanderer even when I was still a newborn. If it comes down to it, I shall merely walk towards another destination. Its not like Gensokyo is devoid of places that I can linger around without concern.

Heck, if it wasn't for the convenience of it all, I would have left the Human Village a long time ago. And what is this very convenience, you may ask? This village, which acts as the home front of the human conglomerate that lives in Gensokyo, houses a fine array of stands that provide meats to the populace. I do not know where these meats come from, but I have heard rumors that the humans have cleaned the corpses of dying Youkai for their products at times…But those are only rumors, and even if they do hold true I would be able to recognize the meats instantly and avoid cannibalism.

After a couple minutes of walking, I have finally made it to one of those stands. A male human mans the stand, as usual. He had a dark-brown stubble at the bottom of his chin, and he was about just as tall as me…But there was nothing really noteworthy about this guy besides that. He has been running this stand for the last ten years, but has barely aged a wink. Like always, the man says "Hi" to me and tries to strike up a conversation. As I nod my head through his tale I pull out a few yen pieces buried in the pocket of my shirt and hand them over before picking up a piece of meat.

The meat had no bones, and was just a thick yet floppy tender cut for my own personal consumption. I held the large piece of meat atop my out held arms and began to head out of the village for my weekly meal. As a Youkai, I don't need to eat that much food to survive compared to the humans, but if there is one thing I must at least respect the humans for is that they know how to pick their meats out. In the cycle that is everyday life for me, eating meat is the one thing I am always happy to do.

But as I neared the exit of the village, the ground started to tremble violently, my balance being shifted forward almost instantly as the meat became detached from my arms and flew forward. Instead of keeping myself standing upright, I fall forward and land stomach first on the ground, accepting a bit of dirt on my clothing in exchange for catching my meat before it is dirtied by the fall. The tremors continue for a good twenty seconds, and from my position on the ground I can tell that they originate from the mountains far away.

The humans wobble about in a panic as I calmly raise myself onto my feet and let out a light sigh, and as the tremors end I merely start walking as though nothing happened. The humans start chatting amongst one another quietly, their words touching my ears as I slowed down my walk. They spoke frightfully of the Earthquake, thinking it as a sign of terrible things to come. I knew better, and assumed that it was probably the work of a prankster Youkai or even possibly an oni…

But the humans thought differently. They were quick to blame another of their kind, the local shrine maiden that went by the name of Reimu Hakurei. Their words were harsh, and some of those words were even repeated by the children that flocked the bodies of their parents. I had never met this Reimu in person, but word has spread through the grapevine that the Hakurei maiden welcomes Youkai of all shapes and sizes to her shrine, a contradiction that actually intrigues me every time I hear about her.

After all, isn't a shrine maiden supposed to eradicate Youkai like myself? …Though the maiden's strange decision went far to explain just why the humans hated her, I still disliked the direction of their blame for a simple reason. I could sense their true intentions in blaming the maiden. These humans, for as happy as they appear to be, know that this village is the only bastion of protection they have from the Youkai abound outside. The humans fear us Youkai because we feast on and frighten them…Though in my case, that is a thing of the past, but I will get to that in a moment.

The point I am trying to make is that the humans, unable to do anything against their hunters, choose to convert their fears into anger towards a single target, the maiden who they feel should solve their problems for them. But what started only as a simple bitter sentence spread like wildfire amongst this flock of sheep, and in time even the children have come to loathe the name "Reimu Hakurei".

"…How stupid" I said quietly to myself, my voice muffled by the collar of my capelet as I turned away from the humans and continued to walk towards the tree that I have come to lay under time and time again. The spreading of nasty rumors about the shrine maiden reminded me once more that despite their fears, it was easy to see that the humans and the Youkai shared one major thing in common, and that was their ability to latch onto a single belief as though there was no other option available to them.

As I lay down back first against the tree and prepare to eat this raw meat in front of me, I am reminded of my past in connection with my current thoughts. Long ago, I did used to eat humans like all other Youkai did, and I was so vicious in how I consumed flesh that most of the blood ended up on my clothing. Back then I had no name to call my own, and was part of a herd of Youkai that hunted throughout the night. There was a shrine maiden around back then too, but I had not the intelligence to know her name.

Back then I didn't know any better, and merely followed the beliefs of the pack I was a part of. "Humans are only for food…" That was our mantra, our way of life. How could we think any different? We of savage minds knew only that single train of thought and nothing else…But if it wasn't for that, perhaps I wouldn't be here recollecting my foolishness.

If I recall correctly, it was about one-hundred years ago. On a single night at the cusp of fall, our pack encountered someone we thought to be human and tried to eat them alive. But with but a swing of the human's parasol, most of our pack were either wiped out or left to the ground without a single clue as to what hit us. This "human", with a peculiar set of clothes and blonde, flowing hair, looked at those of us who survived with an eerie smile.

As the strongest and most violent of the pack, I tried to leap at the "human" again, only for her to bind my feet to the ground before I leaped. But my special ability as a Youkai kicked in, and I detached my head from my shoulders to attack the "human" again. But he just bound my head in mid-air with more chains before even a fang could touch her. The "human" became interested in my ferocity, and after forcibly putting my stunned head onto my shoulders with her abnormal strength she asked me a simple question "Why do you need to feast on humans?"

As I stood there, kept in place by her binds and unable to feast on my prey, I actually found myself thinking about her question. For all my life up until that point, I didn't know why I had to feast on humans specifically, but I always did it because the other Youkai I was around did it. The "human" must have known that I had come to such a realization, for she said to me "Youkai do not need to consume the flesh of humans to survive. You can eat anything you wish and you'll still be alive to see the next day…Wouldn't it be fascinating to be different from the norm?"

I do not know how, but the "human" sensed my decreasing aggression and undid the binds on my feet. After doing so, she fabricated the set of clothes I wear now and put them on my body, at the same time giving me the name Sekibanki, since apparently the 'kanji' for that name meant "red barbarian anomaly", and that was likely given to me not only because of my past but also because I was going to be seen as an anomaly amongst all other Youkai in due time.

Years passed after I met that "human", and though my craving for human flesh tried to take over my mind I forced myself time after time again to push those urges away. I started to substitute human flesh with other meats, something which drew the ire of other carnivorous Youkai. I was eventually ostracized from the forest for daring to go against the mold…When I was kicked out of the forest, I came to view the Youkai with contempt, and to this day nothing has occurred to change my view towards them.

Youkai, with their blind and carnivorous ways…And humans, with their ability to herd their hostilities towards one individual to justify their own fears…I loathe both species, and nothing will ever change my views. The irony of my views is that not only am I actually a Youkai, but I am also disguising myself as a human…But I cannot avoid either matter, even if I wanted to.

With how deep in thought I was regarding the past, I had almost forgotten the meat I bought today. As a Youkai, the only way to acquire money is to scrounge bits of yen off the ground when they fall from the hands of careless humans, so it would be a terrible idea to let that money go to waste by letting the meat linger in my arms. After glancing up to see if any humans would notice me, I detached my head from my shoulders and hovered it down so my mouth would be within range of the meat.

Though I may not devour human flesh anymore, I am not ashamed to admit that some of my carnivorous ways have lingered…I open my mouth up wide with fangs showing brightly and chow right through the slab of meat as though it were paper in my hands. It only took two minutes of eating for the meat to be done with, and the little bits of raw meat that was spread across my clothes were quickly licked up through my tongue. I then put my head back on my shoulders and cocked a tiny smile, content with my meal for this week as I proceeded to look up towards the sky.

When I gazed into the sun this time, I noticed that something felt a bit off…Mostly the fact that I was actually enjoying looking up at the sunlight. I quickly snapped out of my happiness and looked away from the sun, noticing a strange change in the weather's temperament as I did so. At the same time, a streak of blue flashed across the sky, carrying in front of it a human magician on a broomstick. I had heard about this magician before from the villagers…She was friends with the shrine maiden who usually got involved in hunting down Youkai if it suited her needs, and yet the humans didn't hold her to the same standards as they did for the shrine maiden. A hypocritical display if I ever heard of one.

But as I scowled at the humans for their hypocrisy, I thought how strange it was that the weather's temperament had changed not long after that earthquake had occurred. The two events had to be connected, and it seems as though the magician was involved in the matter…

However, it wasn't until months later that I actually learned the truth. After swiping a spare newspaper from the bag of a Tengu with my detached head, I learned that a Celestial had caused both the change in temperament and the Earthquake. But even though the true perpetrator had been revealed, the humans still spoke ill of Reimu Hakurei. "How disgusting…" I noted, as I tossed the newspaper away and left the village to go take a nap that day.

Many more months passed after that, and it was only a matter of time before drastic changes began to occur around the Human Village. A certain concept became the topic of heavy interest amongst the villagers. It was called 'religion'. The setup of a Buddhist Temple and Taoist Mausoleum grabbed the attention of the sheep-like humans, who wanted the priests of both religions to take themselves in as disciples…Until the truth came forth regarding the Buddhists, in which the leader, an oddly youthful woman by the name of Byakuren Hijiri, was revealed to be teaching Youkai about Buddhism.

Unsurprisingly, the humans quickly turned a blind eye to Byakuren's teachings and focused more on the supposed "Crown Prince" Toyosatomimi no Miko's teachings instead, though a select few still were interested in the ways of Buddhism mostly because of their pitiful lust for Byakuren herself…Though if I must be honest, I won't deny that I was a bit interested in the Buddhist priest when I heard what she was doing.

A human that harbors Youkai and teaches them how to find inner peace? At first the concept felt too good to be true, and I actually almost joined her religion despite my beliefs in humans…But as I viewed her from afar, I saw a rather dark aura surrounding her body. Her kindness hid pretty well the dark magic that was keeping her body youthful, and I had every right to suspect an ulterior motive behind her Youkai recruiting.

As far as the Taoist went, I couldn't care less about her. She was all talk, and clearly she sided with the human sheep in the village. There was also the matter of the god atop the Youkai Mountains who favored the Shinto religion…But she rarely made appearances, save for an interview with herself, the Buddhist and the Taoist that was hosted by the local reincarnating scribe Heida no Akyuu. The magician was a part of the procedure, and the shrine maiden even made an appearance…

It was my first time seeing Reimu Hakurei in person, but I was not left with a good impression. She was rather rude to the other three religious leaders, and even to the magician who was supposedly her friend. My views on the shrine maiden changed, and I came to view her with contempt as well. Despite how much the humans flocked towards the single viewpoint of anger towards the shrine maiden, perhaps her straight-forward attitude had much to do with why the humans chose her as a target, and it made me discard whatever pity I had left for her.

Time passed on after that interview, and I surprisingly ended up witnessing another person who chose to hide themselves amongst the humans showing up out of the blue. She was a tanuki from this supposed 'outside world' that had been brought here at the request of one of the Youkai at the Buddhist temple to deal with the Taoist leader. But from how often I find the tanuki strolling around the village, I can only assume that she is not truly connected to the Buddhist temple.

Seeing as I had no qualms with tanuki, I once decided to try and strike up a conversation with the human-disguised creature. After taking her outside the village so no humans would hear, I revealed my identity as a Youkai. With a pipe in her mouth at occasional intervals she not only listened to what I had to say with a smile on her face but also offered courteous words of advice of her own. She reminded me a lot of the "human" I met long ago, but with a less secretive air around her, which was rather welcoming considering how much of a master of a deception one of her kind could have realistically been.

After referring to herself as Mamizou, she kindly told me after I expressed my dislike for the shrine maiden "Perhaps you should go talk to her. Maybe you'll have a different opinion on her after you speak to her in person. After all, Youkai hover around her shrine for a reason."

The tanuki then headed back into the village, leaving me to ponder her words. Once again someone was making me doubt my own views. Was I just easily deceived by those wiser than myself? Maybe, but with the last wise person I listened to providing me with liberation from my disgustingly savage impulses I couldn't help but take Mamizou's words into consideration.

It was not a swift process though when it came to mustering up the desire to go speak with Reimu Hakurei. This matter wasn't helped by some more strange events occurring within the village. At night, I began to notice strange masks floating around then heads of humans along with a child-like Youkai with pink hair and a rather emotionless expression on her face. As the mask beside her face changed appearance one after the other, I couldn't help but notice that she seemed to be in search of something.

But just as quickly as she appeared at night, she disappeared the moment morning arose, and I never once asked her just what she was looking for. The humans touched by her masks began to feel hopeless, and that fueled a desire amongst the Buddhist and Taoist leaders along with Reimu and the magician to battle for popularity. How foolish…The humans were obviously cursed by a Youkai, and not even the one meant to exterminate them noticed anything wrong with the people around her.

Everyone who participated in this religious war fad was a greedy fool who was blind to the truth hidden right before their very eyes. And the humans who fed their greed were scum upon this realm. But I didn't get involved in any of this, I just simply stood back and looked at them all with scorn until finally, the tanuki took action and dealt with the Youkai troubling the humans at night. From what I could understand from afar, the Youkai sought out one of her lost masks, feeling as though she couldn't show emotions without it. But instead of finding the mask, Mamizou convinced her to try and display emotions on her own without feeling as though she needed to rely on her masks.

In a way, Mamizou's speech to the Youkai reminded me of the speech that "human" gave me long ago, which made me actually respect the tanuki. And in turn, the mysterious Youkai earned my respect by luring the three religious leaders to the village and not only calling them out for their ridiculous religious war but also managing to defeat all three of them in combat. The war ended, and the fad soon died down.

I came out of this war with a positive view towards Mamizou and the Youkai named Hata no Kokoro, but my opinion on Reimu herself declined rapidly. Even with Mamizou's advice, I had nearly no interest in talking to the shrine maiden personally. She was a ridiculously petty, foul-mouthed fool who couldn't be trusted to do anything unless something or someone forced her to get involved.

…Without even realizing it at first, I began to share the same opinion as the humans. Did this make me a hypocrite? Probably, but at the very least I created this opinion on my own instead of just immediately succumbing to the views the humans had of her.

A few days after the war had passed, the masked Youkai held a Noh play at the Hakurei shrine. Curious only to see what the play would be like, I went up to the shrine and watched the play from afar. Mamizou was there, along with the Buddhist and Taoist leaders, and of course Reimu Hakurei herself. Reimu seemed to be in full support of the Youkai's play, and it was quite a spectacle to behold if I must truly be honest. It was my first time experience such a thing, sure, but that didn't mean I couldn't judge it fairly.

Once the play subsided, I almost considered speaking to Reimu while she was there, but changed my mind and went back to the village later that night. Even though she showed kindness to the masked Youkai, I couldn't help but believe that there was an ulterior motive behind her actions. After all, she only partook in the religious war to gain popularity for her shrine, so who is to say she wasn't using the masked Youkai for the same purpose?

…Either way, the next few months were rather quiet, but after all that had happened the last couple of years I actually welcomed to the quiet atmosphere. I was able to go back to my usual schedule of buying meat from the stands and devouring it in privacy. Though I suppose now I could have the joy of having a friend to talk to whenever I found her wandering about.

But as fall began to come about and summer left Gensokyo behind, I started to feel a rather weird sensation inside of my body. I was rather good at keeping myself calm, even when my hatred of humans and Youkai came to the forefront, but now something was building up inside of me…A desire to cause trouble and rebel against the humans. And apparently, I wasn't the only one who thought such things. A mere day after I felt this sensation, a few weaker Youkai charged headfirst into the Human Village and started causing trouble. The humans fled to the safety of their houses, sealing both doors and windows tightly to save themselves from harm.

As the Youkai left without snatching even a single bit of prey, my long buried ferocious instincts rose to the surface once more, and I desired to finish what the lesser Youkai could not do. Even though I could think, I could not fully control my body, and immediately set out to do what I subconsciously desired. But before I got too far, who else would confront me but Reimu Hakurei herself.

We fought a Spell Card duel after I exchanged a few harsh words with her…That much I believe was something I controlled all on my own. I think my words barely phased her though, and she defeated me swiftly without breaking so much as a sweat. But as I mocked her for being a shrine maiden who let Youkai linger around her shrine under the assumption that those would be my final words, she merely shrugged her shoulders and flew off without saying another word.

I was absolutely surprised by this. She spared me, even though by all accounts I was a rogue Youkai threatening the humans. "Why did she do this?" was the question that lingered inside of my head as I laid there nearly unconscious on the ground of the Human Village. But it wasn't until the force that influenced my thoughts was dealt with that I was able to swiftly return to my tree outside the village and lay back against it to think that question over.

I considered myself lucky that not a single human found out about my true identity. With their overwhelming fear and hatred combined with my weakened state, there was no denying that they would have killed me then and there. My face was left flustered because of Reimu Hakurei, her actions and behavior puzzling me immensely as I sat there all alone.

Reimu Hakurei was selfish, yet she helps Gensokyo time after time again. She is supposed to be a Youkai exterminator, but she spared my life and that of many other Youkai that threatened both herself and Gensokyo despite knowing that it would earn the ire of the humans in this village. None of her actions made sense, she was a living, breathing contradiction that I just could not find myself capable of understanding…

And that's when it hit me. "Maybe that's the point…" I quietly whispered as I lifted my head up with widened eyes. Reimu Hakurei was her own person. She did things the way she wanted to, and didn't care what others thought of her because of that. In a way, she was like me, a free spirit not bound to any fads or views. No matter what others thought, she believed what she wanted to believe, and did what she wanted to do.

As I realized this, I actually ended up feeling a little iota of respect towards the shrine maiden, and as I looked up towards the sunlit sky I saw Reimu flying back towards her shrine now that she had apparently resolved the incident that caused me to go berserk. Cracking a tiny smile, I leaned back against the maple tree and decided to relax, bathing happily in the sun for the first time in my life.

My name is Sekibanki, and while my opinion on humans and Youkai as a whole will likely never, ever change…That doesn't mean that it is wrong for me to make exceptions when it comes to my contempt…

"_The end…_

_See? I promised you a short tale, and a promise I did end up keeping. You may wonder yet again how I was able to let you hear a story through the first-person perspective of that Youkai, but I must again state that such a method shall remain a secret. _

_I must admit, I do find the one named Sekibanki to be an interesting character. She was one of the first Youkai to sway from the carnivorous path of the rest of her kind, and she was only the first of many over the years since the Great Hakurei Barrier was erected around Gensokyo…The time will eventually come where both Youkai and humans can live together perfectly, but until then there's nothing I can do about the humans whose numbers are culled by those carnivorous beasts. _

…_Do not look at me with such angered eyes. I do truly care for the safety of your kind in this realm, but I cannot be everywhere at every point in time. Even for me, such a task is impossible, and I only have two Shikigami on hand to assist me in such endeavors. But the number of deaths have steadily decreased, you can be assured on that end. _

_Now then…*yawn*…It is time for me to retreat to my bed for a three-month slumber, so until I awaken, as I said before, I leave the duty of story telling up to my Shikigami Ran. May we meet again when the passing of months leads those of you beyond the static veil to the month of March…"_

**Story 3 - Finish**


	4. The Epic of Sukuna Shinmyoumaru

**Story 4: The Epic of Sukuna Shinmyoumaru**

"…_This is going to take some getting used to, in spite of all Lady Yukari told me."_

"_Hello there, humans beyond the static veil. My name is Yakumo Ran, though you may have heard of my other names through the grapevine you call the 'internet'. I am the Shikigami of my master, Lady Yukari, and for many, many years I have adopted her surname as my own. As of now she rests, hibernating to regain her strength in the winter months. But before she fell asleep, along with the usual instructions, she left me with a strange jeweled scroll and explained to me that someone needed to take over for her 'storytelling', as she described it._

…_I must admit though, I do not know how these scroll functions. It is blank, devoid of even a single kanji, and the only hint she left for me is 'that the desires stemming from the other side will guide the way'."_

"…_!"_

"_T-The scroll is waving around on its own? …I see, so this is what Lady Yukari meant. It seems as though the scroll listens to the desires of you humans and changes its texture to depict a story that you want to hear. It seems today you want to hear an adventurous tale that follows the most recent newcomer to Gensokyo, the inchling descendant of Issun-Boushi. Very well, I shall strive to accomplish this task dutifully…"_

It starts in a dark, boxed in area. There is barely any light shining through save for the thin, rectangular slit in the ceiling. At the bottom of this box is a person of only a few inches in height. She wears a pink Kimono with a pinstripe pattern, some flowers, and a black Obi around her waist. She has a black bowl covering the top of her ivory purple hair that is patterned with a flower border. In her left hand is a strange yellow mallet, while kept in-between the right side of her Obi and kimono is a long sewing needle with a rather peculiar shine to it.

The inchling leaps high into the air, making it just barely to the slit in the box before falling back down onto her feet in a near instant. Once on the ground the inchling groans in a quiet tone and quickly plops onto her rear end, leaning her hand against the bottom of her chin as she notes to herself in a childish voice "Its been an hour since the legendary oni-slayer Sukuna Shinmyoumaru had been tossed into this jail cell by the cruel Oni King's minions…"

She spoke like a narrator of her own story, being as dramatic as physically possible in tone as she puts on a serious face and continues to say "A box of dark and unimaginable evil created by the deepest fires of Hell itself, the Oni King made sure to include a slit only to give the heroine he captured a tiny sliver of hope that she would live to see tomorrow!"

Sukuna pokes her head towards the lit up slit and said to herself "And the Oni King, with his deception and guile, knew all too well that without the power of the charged Magic Mallet the oni-slayer Sukuna would not be able to simply fly her way out of this cage! And with the slit so high up, not even the added jumping prowess of her small height would allow her to exit!"

The inchling then dramatically swings her head back and leans her right arm against her forehead in agony, crying out in a cheesy tone of voice "And with death certainly approaching, is there anything the legendary oni-slayer can do?! If only she had something to give her more height to jump on!"

Because of how far back Sukuna had her head, the bowl on top of her hair quickly drops to the ground on its side. It then rolls along the floor as the dumbstruck inchling quickly pulls herself up and turns around to give chase to her bowl. After following it through the darkness she can barely she through, Sukuna watches as it collides with a solid object and flips onto its rim. The inchling picks up her bowl and puts it back on her head, and then tries to look down to see what was hit. It was a yen piece lost to the flow of time, and by now it had become mostly covered up in a cobweb. Smiling brightly, the inchling said in a bombastic tone of voice "Exploring the depths of the cage for some assistance entirely on her own free will, the legendary Sukuna has come across a yen piece that likely belonged to a former inmate of this prison! Perhaps with this she will be able to get enough height to escape!"

The inchling puts the handle of her mallet into her Obi and approaches the yen piece's edge, but as she kneels down and pricks the front of the cobweb with her nail a scuttling noise can suddenly be heard coming from above. Sukuna freezes for a moment before looking up, at which points a hairy brown spider with dripping fangs and a bundle of black eyes appears right before the inchling. Quickly stumbling back on her feet in a frightened panic, Sukuna watches as the spider hisses and raises its front legs into the air as though ready to lunge.

But before the spider could get the chance, Sukuna quickly draws her sewing needle sword from her Obi, and while stuttering in fear as she tries to get a firm grip on her sword she ends up fumbling around with it before grabbing onto the sharper edge. As her hands remain thankfully unharmed, she repeatedly swings the handle of her sword down upon the spider's head, the first blow hitting the spider hard enough to make it drop its legs while the remaining blows drive the poor arachnid further and further into an unconscious state.

Once Sukuna has battered the spider into submission while freaking out the whole time, the inchling holds her sewing needle in front of her body while panting deeply to try and calm herself down. When the spider twitches again, Sukuna wastes no time in smacking the arachnid in the head one more time, and she sheathes her needle when she is certain that she was safe. Afterwards she quietly kneels down and pulls on the yen piece's edge, tugging it away from the cobwebs with relatively ease despite how big the coin was compared to her own height.

After pulling the coin back to the center of the box, Sukuna takes a deep breath and goes back to her earlier narration, saying in a bombastic tone of voice "Thus, after bravely conquering the hellish flaming sword wielding spider with nary a sweat, the dashing Sukuna carried the spoils of battle through the dark and empty cage, where she would now attempt to make her escape with the added height the yen piece gave!"

The inchling crawls atop the yen piece and goes as close to the center hole as she can, looking up towards the slit in the ceiling and attempting another hefty jump just moments later. She reaches her hand up towards the approaching edge of the slit, but fails to connect and quickly falls back down into the cage. Once her feet touch the yen piece Sukuna stumbles onto her butt once more and gets a rather cutesy expression of pain on her face.

"'Ooof!' Sukuna proclaimed as her plan to escape has failed once more! But the little oni-slayer is not yet deterred!" The inchling proclaims as she rises to her feet and begins to look around the box once more, hoping to find yet another yen piece for use in helping her escape.

A short journey through the box yields pleasurable results, as she happens to find a fresh yen piece in another corner of the box. After dragging the piece back, the inchling steps atop the old one and pulls the one she just got on top, giving her a stack of two that she quickly climbs atop of. "With two yen pieces stacked atop another, the brave and daring Sukuna prepared to escape once more!" The inchling said.

Leaping high into the air, Sukuna raises her hand up and grabs the left edge of the slit, pulling herself up with the assistance of both hands so she was now on top of the boxed in area. Now that she had escaped, she took a look around her, noting to herself "And now the famed Sukuna finds herself at the base of the Oni King's castle, free of her cage with mallet and sword at her sides."

Walking towards the back edge of the box, Sukuna looks down at the daunting wooden porch of the 'Oni King's castle' and proclaims as she holds her right hand above her tiny brows "Though the front steps may be tall, Sukuna is not afraid to venture forth in her quest to stop the deadly Oni King! But she knows not what the cracks in the steps may hold, and one wrong jump may send her into the hands of the Oni King's minions once more!"

Sukuna leaps off of the box after some careful consideration, her body slowly descending due in part to a gentle updraft up her kimono along with her tiny size. But as she moves towards the long, wooden porch of the 'Oni King's castle' she notices something wet resting on the surface of the porch that quickly throws her into a state of shock.

"Oh no! It seems as though the Oni King hath drunk some of his endless sake upon the porch of his castle! That slippery liquid shall only throw the lovely Sukuna into the cracks before the doorway to the castle itself!" Quickly thinking as she descends closer towards the puddle of slippery sake, Sukuna grips onto the bottom of her kimono with both hands and clamps it against her legs to weaken the effect the draft has on her so she descends straight down instead of being carried forward like she was before.

This causes the inchling to end up right in front of the sake puddle, her landing causing a slight creak to be heard from the wood in spite of her miniscule weight. Breathing a sigh of relief, Sukuna proceeds to say as she walks forward "Having harrowingly avoided another of the Oni King's deadly traps, the lovely Sukuna began to make her way slowly towards the castle itself, where-"

Without warning, the bit wood below Sukuna's feet cracks apart, causing the inchling to fall down into the area below the 'Oni King's' porch. She crashes down on top of a muddy patch of dirt, which would normally not be a problem if she wasn't as small as she was. So instead of just getting right out of the mud, Sukuna at first had to flail her arms about as she is still taken aback by the sudden drop from the porch before she regained her composure and carefully straightened her body.

The inchling then swam to the northern end of the mud puddle and climbed out, but her clothes were now drenched with mud. As she shook off the wet mud from her sleeves, Sukuna put on a distraught expression and went back to narrating her adventure with a cautious sounding voice "Falling for yet another of the Oni King's deceitful traps, the legendary Sukuna finds herself covered in what appears to be the Oni King's solidified miasma, a deadly magical substance that demons such as the Oni King love to use for nefarious ends."

As Sukuna tries to shake the 'miasma' off, she continues to narrate "Who knows what magic now befalls the poor Sukuna? And worst of all, the scent of the miasma on her body is enough to attract the foul demons that populate the lower regions of the Oni King's castle! Whatever shall she do if one such minion comes her way?"

The inchling then turns to the left and tries to see if there was any easy way out of the area underneath the 'Oni King's porch', but found only a single hole off to the left. Sukuna started to walk towards it, but began to hear the rustling of something behind her as she moved. Slowly turning around, the inchling saw a creature slowly crawling towards her from the right edge of the staircase. It was a black rat with strange red eyes and half of a tail. It towered over Sukuna's tiny body as it stood down, and the inchling was naturally frightened by its presence even more so than she was with the spider from earlier.

Sukuna freezes up after taking a few steps back, her eyes welling up with fearful tears as she stutters out "The b-brave S-S-Sukuna has c-come face to face with the O-Oni King's mighty general, the Demonic Rat of Plagues…"

The inchling watches as the rat slowly advances towards her with its two long teeth drawn, and it was likely only a matter of time before she would be eaten. She wouldn't be able to beat the rat into submission like she did the spider, so at the time it seemed as though there was nothing that Sukuna could do to save herself. But then as she swayed her left hand back and forth, she brushed against the side of her Magic Mallet and suddenly got an idea.

Calming herself for just a moment, the inchling pulls the mallet out from her Obi and points it at the rat, saying in a brave tone of voice "With quick, brave thinking the mighty oni-slayer Sukuna drew her Magic Mallet in front of the foul beast. At the cost of delaying the time it would take for her to become big again, she would be able to control the Oni King's general and turn the beast against him!"

Waving the mallet at the rat while putting her wishes into the magical object, Sukuna covers the rat with magic sparkles, and in seconds the aggressive nature of the rat dies down completely. The filthy creature inches closer towards the inchling, but merely lets out a passive squeak as it brushes its nose against the front of Sukuna's chin. The nose was cold and a little wet, which made Sukuna shiver at first, but the gentleness of the creature at the very least made the inchling breath a sigh of relief as the rat pulls its nose back.

"After taming the mighty general, the brave Sukuna puts her mallet away for now and leaps atop the filthy beast, ready to ride the creature out of the desolate hellfires beneath the Oni King's castle so I could confront the giant and end him for good!" Sukuna narrates as she leaps atop her tamed creature and points towards the hole in the stairs. The creature nodded its head and dashes forward like a stallion, with the inchling forced to clasp the fur of the creature along with her bowl before she is flung off her new ride.

Making her way out to the sunny outdoors of the Oni King's staircase, Sukuna quickly guided the rat back towards the stairs. The creature climbed it quickly and made it back to the porch, and its quick and nimble movements allowed the creature to bypass the sake puddles without slipping up. In seconds the rat has entered the castle of the 'Oni King'. Sukuna then looks on ahead, noticing how vacant everything seemed to be on the first floor despite what she knew of the 'Oni King'.

"With heroine-ic resolve, the brave Sukuna has advanced into the Oni King's castle with the help of the Demonic Rat of Plagues that was under her control! But everything was vacant, as though the Oni King had perhaps moved out of fear of the oni-slayer's inevitable escape! But Sukuna knew far too well that there was more afoot than that!" Sukuna looks in all directions as she speaks, and tries to find any signs of the 'Oni King's' minions.

However, the only thing that crawls along the floor is a dark brown cockroach, which Sukuna doesn't take much interest in at first until suddenly another couple of cockroach appear from nowhere and gather beside the first one. Then many more appear, creating a swarm of cockroaches along the floor of the 'Oni King's castle'. Sukuna and the rat are taken aback by this sudden onslaught of cockroaches, but like always the inchling wants to dramatically narrate the scene in front of her.

"An ambush of unforeseen proportions! The brave and mighty Sukuna and her newly controlled ally have been surrounded by the Oni King's experimental cockroach army! These creatures have been designed to survive many battles and grow ever stronger, and their small size and numbers makes them a perfect line of defense against me! But the Oni King awaits at the top of this mighty castle, and if I can defeat what he has set against me then for sure I will succeed!" Sukuna then lowers her bowl in a serious manner in front of her forehead and draws out her sewing needle sword, brandishing it high enough into the air that the position of the sunlight caused the needle to glimmer brightly and heroically.

Sukuna then pointed the sharp tip at the cockroaches and demanded of the rat she controlled to charge forward into battle. Dashing on ahead, the two engaged in a furious battle against the adaptable insect army. The sword was swung out gallantly from atop the rat, with cockroaches being cut in half left and right along the first floor of the 'Oni King's' castle. The ground was swathed with the innards of those insects thanks to a combination of the rat's sharp claws and Sukuna's equally sharp needle.

But the cockroaches were many in number, far more than would be expected at first glance. Sukuna and the rat still valiantly fight on with all their might, even when the cockroaches started to fight back with their many numbers once they realized the size of their enemy. The rat is swarmed by the cockroaches, and in fear the beast accidentally reels back and end up launching Sukuna off of its body. The inchling is tossed onto the ground away from most of the cockroaches, and as the skittering of their legs could be heard atop the rat Sukuna watches as the beast makes a run for it while it still had a chance to live.

As many cockroaches are flung off of its body as it flees, the inchling quickly puts herself on her feet and readjusts her bowl in disbelief at what just happened while the insects turn to face her. With her sewing needle sword still drawn but the hand that grasps it now trembling, Sukuna narrates to herself "F-Faced with the onslaught of the mighty cockroach army without the help of the Demon Rat of Plagues, the b-b-brave Sukuna held her sword in front of her and prepared for battle once more. S-She was not going to run away, not when victory still felt assured to her."

As timidness began to creep up on the inchling, the cockroaches readied to advance. But suddenly the ground trembles, and the cockroaches go skittering away in all directions. Turning towards the directions of the trembles, Sukuna notices a mighty imposing shadow approaching from the distance. Quickly raising her needle sword at the enemy, she begins to narrate in a bombastic tone of voice "The Oni King has returned to his castle! The legions of insects at his hellish command scatter in fear, but Sukuna stands defiantly against the might of this gruesome beast, and-"

"Sukuna, what the hell are you doing?" The voice bluntly says to the inchling to break her narration.

It was Reimu Hakurei, the red and white shrine maiden who runs the shrine that little Sukuna is currently standing in the center of on the inside. The shrine maiden examined the floor, noticing the remains of the many dead cockroaches the inchling had slain and immediately slamming her right hand against her face and groaning as she murmurs to herself "Great…Cockroaches are infesting my shrine…Ugh, I'll just deal with them later…"

The shrine maiden then looks down at the inches high Sukuna and asks her as she puts her sewing needle away "No seriously, what were you up to since I was gone?"

Sukuna, with a child-like embarrassed look on her face, swung her fist clenched arms in front of her body and exclaimed towards Reimu "I was having an adventure because not only did my house just disappeared out of the blue, but I also found myself stuck inside your barren donation box!"

The shrine maiden looks down at Sukuna and says to her with a puzzled raise of her right eyebrow "Wait, you were in my donation box?"

Sukuna exclaims with a bluster on her face "Yes! I was thrown from my house in my sleep and ended up in there! You don't know how boring it was inside of there until I decided to make an adventure of my entrapment!"

As more details come to light, Reimu actually starts to take interest and looks down at Sukuna and says to her "Oh, you were inside your house? You probably got tossed from it when I took it out of the shrine this morning."

Sukuna says in furious disbelief towards the shrine maiden "You did WHAT?!"

Reimu bends down and snaps her fingers at the inchling, the close proximity to the sound knocking Sukuna on her back as the shrine maiden scowls at her and proceeds to say "Don't get so flustered damn it, I didn't throw it into the trash or anything like that. I was going to actually try and do a tiny bit of cleaning today and needed to get your house out of the way. Right now it should still be out back."

Sukuna slowly pulls herself back up, but halfway through she looks at Reimu with a flustered expression and proclaims "You could have told me you were going to do that!"

The shrine maiden bluntly replies with "Last I checked you were living at my place. I don't have to tell you anything. Just be thankful I haven't kicked you out yet."

Reimu then stands back upright and looks around at the splattered remains of the cockroaches and says to herself with a heavy sigh "…Ugh, now I have to clean all of this up. Just don't do anything else, ok?"

The shrine maiden then walks off to go grab her broom and get to work as much as it pained her to do so, while Sukuna rises to her feet and lightly sticks out her tongue, pulling down the bottom part of her right eyelid with a finger as negative thoughts towards Reimu fill her mind. But now that she knew where her house was, the inchling let out a sigh of relief and quickly leaped through the air with ease and made her way to the area behind the shrine. Sure enough, her little abode awaited her, wrapped around with the same tiny ropes that she came to expect.

Leaping inside the house, Sukuna decided that she had enough excitement for one day and after putting her Magic Mallet and sewing needle sword away the inchling decided to retreat to her tiny little mattress, folding a dragon-pattern cotton sheet over her body as her bowl drops onto the floor behind her. It doesn't take long for Sukuna to fall asleep, but as she does she dreams of something grand.

She imagines herself, tall and elegant, with a sewing needle sword of pure platinum in her right hand as she rides atop a golden armored rat with flames for claws and lightning for a tail. Her and her ride are atop a glorious mountain with a gigantic spider slain behind her and a valley filled to the brim with cockroaches riding towards them. Towering above the mountain though is the Oni King, who in Sukuna's dreams takes the form of a grotesque, fleshless titan with sixteen horns on her head.

In reality, Sukuna grins like a merry child and mumbles in her sleep as she lays her arms back against her pillow "And thus the brave Sukuna raised her sword in defiance of the mighty Oni King, ready to rid the world of his foul kind once and for all…"

"_And the story ends there…_

…_Hmm, and it appears as though there is other text that I must read off to you humans beyond the static veil. 'Imagination has no limit. Age and thoughts of any sorts are more than enough to let blossom the seeds of imagination. But do not let imagination override the reality before you.' …I believe that this was the lesson Lady Yukari wanted me to say to you when the story came to an end. For now, I have completed my duty, and I shall do so again when the time arises. Farewell until then, humans."_

**Story 4 - End**


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